When I Was Puerto Rican not only tells the story of Santiago's life but looks at the tensions that Americanization brings, both in the new land and on return trips to the homeland.
Desperate Poverty
When I Was Puerto Rican begins with Santiago's description of growing up in many different households, one centered in the rural barrio of Macun and the others closer to her mother's family in a town called Santurce. In Macun the family lived in a "home [that] was a giant version of the lard cans used to haul water from the public fountain. Its windows and doors were also metal, and as we stepped in, I touched the wall and burned my fingers." Macun was the home of Santiago's father, Papi, a laborer and poet who was father to Esmeralda and all of her siblings, but who, after vacillating through nine pregnancies, finally refused to marry her mother.
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