When I Was Puerto Rican
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Narrated by:
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Esmeralda Santiago
About this listen
“The jíbaro can never wash away the stain of the plantain,” declares Esmeralda “Negi” Santiago as she begins telling her story. In this poignant audiobook, the first volume of her memoirs, she explores what it means to be Puerto Rican in the United States.
Esmeralda Santiago reminisces about her childhood in Puerto Rico and her early years in Brooklyn as the oldest of seven (soon to be 11) children. Her upbringing is turbulent on account of her parents’ relentless fighting, which only ever seems to stop when they decide to have another baby. When her youngest brother has an accident, her mother decides to move to New York with her children to seek medical treatment. Arriving in the United States, 13-year-old Santiago experiences uprooting and a loss of identity while she tries to adapt to a culture and language that are foreign to her.
The author herself narrates the memoir, which provides an additional emotional element to the story. Hearing her talk about the taste, color and smell of guavas makes the listener almost feel the texture of the fruit on their lips. It’s inspiring to hear a female perspective of what it’s like to be an immigrant pursuing the American dream.
When I was Puerto Rican is not only the literary debut of an extraordinary author and an entertaining autobiography sprinkled with touches of humor, but it is also a cultural text. This listen’s themes are so relevant that many schools across the country include it in the curriculum. It has also been adapted for the stage on several occasions.
©2006 Esmeralda Santiago (P)2018 CANTOMEDIAListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
At eighteen, Soledad couldn't get away fast enough from her contentious family with their endless tragedies and petty fights. Two years later, she's an art student at Cooper Union with a gallery job and a hip East Village walk-up. But when Tia Gorda calls with the news that Soledad's mother has lapsed into an emotional coma, she insists that Soledad's return is the only cure. Fighting the memories of open hydrants, leering men, and slick-skinned teen girls with raunchy mouths and snapping gum, Soledad moves home to West 164th Street.
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Wish I could finish it....
- By dassy2575 on 08-19-23
By: Angie Cruz
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For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts
- A Love Letter to Women of Color
- By: Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
- Narrated by: Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The founder of Latina Rebels and a “Latinx Activist You Should Know” (Teen Vogue) arms women of color with the tools and knowledge they need to find success on their own terms.
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Must Read for BIWOC
- By Veronica Garcia on 09-24-21
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Clap When You Land
- By: Elizabeth Acevedo
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Acevedo, Melania-Luisa Marte
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times best-selling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.
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Narration
- By VB on 06-05-20
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How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
- By: Julia Alvarez
- Narrated by: Blanca Camacho, Annie Henk, Annie Kozuch, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents captures the vivid lives of the Garcia sisters, four privileged and rebellious Dominican girls adapting to their new lives in America. In the 1960s, political tension forces the Garcia family away from Santo Domingo and toward the Bronx. The sisters all hit their strides in America, adapting and thriving despite cultural differences, language barriers, and prejudice.
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I'm Latina and even I didn't like it
- By Anonymous User on 07-28-19
By: Julia Alvarez
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You Sound Like a White Girl
- The Case for Rejecting Assimilation
- By: Julissa Arce
- Narrated by: Julissa Arce
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In this dual polemic and manifesto, Julissa dives into and tears apart the lie that assimilation leads to belonging. She combs through history and her own story to break down this myth, arguing that assimilation is a moving finish line designed to keep Black and brown Americans and immigrants chasing racist American ideals. She talks about the Lie of Success, the Lie of Legality, the Lie of Whiteness, and the Lie of English - each promising that if you obtain these things, you will reach acceptance and won’t be an outsider anymore.
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Thank you!
- By mexime on 09-01-22
By: Julissa Arce
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Family Lore
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Acevedo
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Acevedo, Sixta Morel, Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake—a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she’s led—her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else’s? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.
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Underwhelming.
- By Karina on 09-18-23
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The Distance Between Us
- A Memoir
- By: Reyna Grande
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In this inspirational and unflinchingly honest memoir, acclaimed author Reyna Grande describes her childhood torn between the United States and Mexico, and shines a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border. Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years in this “compelling...unvarnished, resonant” (BookPage) story of a childhood spent torn between two parents and two countries.
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opened my eyes to the beauty of our stories
- By Evelyn on 09-18-20
By: Reyna Grande
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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
- By: Erika L. Sánchez
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga's role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.
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FOR LATINAS WHO ARE OFTEN TOLD THEY "SOUND WHITE"
- By Alex on 12-14-18
By: Erika L. Sánchez
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Olga Dies Dreaming
- A Novel
- By: Xochitl Gonzalez
- Narrated by: Almarie Guerra, Inés del Castillo, Armando Riesco
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro “Prieto” Acevedo” are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular Congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan’s powerbrokers. Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the one percent, but she can’t seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets.
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Funny, romantic, serious, substantial—all of these things and more
- By Diana on 01-07-22
By: Xochitl Gonzalez
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In the Time of the Butterflies
- By: Julia Alvarez
- Narrated by: Noemi de la Puente, Alma Cuervo, Bianca Carnacho, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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It is November 25, 1960, and the bodies of three beautiful, convent-educated sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. El Caribe, the official newspaper, reports their deaths as an accident. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of General Raphael Leonidas Trujillo's dictatorship.
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Maybe it's just me but...
- By Sarah PK on 03-05-16
By: Julia Alvarez
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The Cemetery of Untold Stories
- By: Julia Alvarez
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.
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Not good for audiobook
- By Dana on 06-17-24
By: Julia Alvarez
What listeners say about When I Was Puerto Rican
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- MaryPat
- 09-14-19
Just SO good!
I’ve listened to more than seventy memoirs many narrated by the author, I’m a confirmed junkie of the genre!
Prior to this book Michele Obama held the #1 spot, now I think there’s a tie for first place. Ms Santiago is engaging, believable, honest and interesting. She is an excellent storyteller!
I have only one complaint about this book, it ended. I have already downloaded “Almost a Woman” and I’m starting it now!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Paulette Stout
- 03-13-24
A glimpse in my family past
Growing up in New York, the child of a first generation American born to Puerto Rican parents,we were too far removed from what her parents experienced back on the island. Thank you for this look into my heritage. A joy!
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1 person found this helpful
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- j.wilson
- 09-23-22
excellent novel
it was a great storyline of Esmeralda's life growing up. it took you through "when she was Peurto Rican"
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- Deborah De Jesus
- 04-25-19
Praise
Esmeralda Santiago revives stories of her childhood, and enlivens the images through her tales. Her narration was exceptional.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Tamara Smith
- 03-01-21
Easy read, interesting insight.
This is written and performed almost as if for a youthful audience. An inspirational story but delivered in a matter-of-fact tone.
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- Lissy
- 10-26-23
Loved it!
I loved the vivid descriptions in the narration and how I could envision everything she was saying! I loved how she would sprinkle Spanish words that are so familiar to me and made me chuckle. I enjoyed this story so much!
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- Anonymous User
- 03-14-22
great realistic Puerto rican story
I loved this book it really reminded me of my roots. It brought me back to simple times
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1 person found this helpful
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- Marciano Galarza
- 01-16-23
Great Book
This book was awesome and reminded me of my childhood from when I used to visit PR and how I grew up in Brooklyn. Can’t wait to get the second book!
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- jennie brown
- 06-10-24
Puerto rico
I liked the memory's. I could relate with her journey. my family is Puerto Rican.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ani
- 02-07-20
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Truly a lovely read. This very detailed, beautifully read book gave me an insight into my mother, grandmother, and even my great grandmothers life from Puerto Rico as they settled into their new, assimilated life in NY in the 1950’s. I’m literally in tears, don’t want the book to end, and want to hear what happens next! Her children? Grandchildren? How and where are her brothers and sisters? Loved it!
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1 person found this helpful