When I Was Puerto Rican

Teacher's Guide

NOTE TO TEACHERS

When I Was Puerto Rican is a real-life coming-of-age story that should be of special interest to American students. Puerto Rico, our "fifty-first state," has an anomalous status as both American and Hispanic, "foreign": Esmeralda Santiago gives us an extraordinary insight into what it is like to be a Puerto Rican, both on the island and as an immigrant in New York City.

Esmeralda (nicknamed "Negi") narrates the story in a simple style, relating the often heartbreaking events of her childhood gently and without judgment. Negi spends her early childhood in the poor but beautiful Puerto Rican countryside. It is the Eisenhower era and the Americans are trying hard to "Americanize" the island, but the children's life is an idyllic one, and they enjoy a freedom unknown to urban children. The beauty of this life, however, is marred by the conflicts in their parents' union: Mami and Papi have seven children together but fight bitterly and remain unmarried, and Papi continues to see other women.

After a tortuous series of separations and reconciliations, Mami decides to break away from Papi, and she takes her brood to Brooklyn, "a place said to be as full of promise as Ponce de LeÛn's El Dorado." [p. 37] While devastated at leaving her beloved home, Negi bravely accepts her new life, in the process becoming what she would later call a "hybrid": both Puerto Rican and American. Determined to escape the ugliness of her family's life in Brooklyn, she works hard to be accepted to the High School for the Performing Arts in Manhattan, from which she goes on as a scholarship student to Harvard.

Esmeralda Santiago's story is an important one because, though it is the unique story of a strong individual character, it also gives insight into the lives of so many thousands of immigrants to this country. While remaining very much a part of the world they left behind, these immigrants are faced with a new language, a new culture, and new expectations and codes of conduct.

TEACHING IDEAS

The questions, assignments, and discussion topics that follow are designed to guide your students in their approach to When I Was Puerto Rican as a work of literature and as a cultural document, a narrative that should enrich their understanding of another culture, of the immigrant experience, and indeed of our country, with its wide variety of immigrant communities. The following suggestions should aid comprehension, inspire independent research and writing, and provide ideas for in-class discussion of individual themes. When I Was Puerto Rican is an ideal jumping-off point for comparing the values and customs of the United States with those of different countries. The theme of male and female roles, in particular, should be discussed. The students should be encouraged to read the newspapers and pay special attention to current stories dealing with immigrants and their problems.

DISCUSSION AND WRITING

Understanding the Story

I. Macún

1. What is a jíbaro? What positive connotations does the word have? What negative ones? What does the word mean to Negi?
2. Where did Mami grow up? How does she feel about living in Macún?
3. Who is Provi? Who is Margie? What are Negi's emotions upon hearing of their existence? Why does Papi turn for comfort to Negi, rather than to Mami, when Provi takes Margie to New York?
4. Where does Papi go when he stays out all night? What clues does the narrator give to his whereabouts?
5. Why does Mami decide to move to the city?

II. Santurce

1. How does Negi react to her new home? In what way is it an improvement over Macún? In what way is it worse?
2. Who is Tata? Where has she gone, and why?
3. Why is Negi called a jíbaro in Santurce but not in Macún?
4. How does the Santiago family celebrate Christmas? Is it a religious holiday for them or simply a family festival?
5. How is Negi's reaction to Rita different from her mother's? What is a puta? How do ordinary Puerto Rican women use the word?
6. Why does Mami say that the Santiagos are not very good Catholics?

III. Macun

1. What happens in Jurutungo? What is a pocavergüenza?
2. How is a velorio different from an American funeral? How do the mourners express their respect for Don Berto? In what ways does the community help the Marín family in their time of grief?
3. How does Papi define a soul? How does Negi define one?
4. What is the Estado Libre Asociado? How long has Puerto Rico been a territory of the United States?
5. What is the function of the community center in Macún? Why do the Americanos want the children of Macún to substitute American foods for their own foods? Why is the program eventually abandoned?
6. Who are Dick, Jane, and Sally? Are they appropriate models for the children of Macún?
7. What is a jamona? What is the difference between a jamona and a señorita? Is there a male equivalent of a jamona? Why is the word a pejorative one in the Puerto Rican culture? Are there such negative connotations in American culture? How does Negi herself feel about the possibility of remaining jamona?
8. Where will Papi go after he leaves Negi with Abuela? Is Abuela deceived by his lies?
9. Why does baby Raymond wear a charm during the first months of his life?
10. Why does Mami decide to get a job for the first time? Why does she dress so differently in order to go to work? What kind of a taboo is Mami breaking in going to work? Why does she evoke such hostility in her neighbors? Why do the women, in particular, resent her? How does Papi feel about Mami's job? And Negi?
11. Mami says that Negi has a duty "as a female, as a sister, as the eldest." [125] What does she mean by this? Do you feel that Negi has too many responsibilities?
12. Why is Negi jealous of Jenny even when Jenny is blamed for Raymond's accident? Can you explain Papi's reaction to Raymond's wound?

IV. Santurce

1. Describe El Mangle. Why aren't the children allowed to play outside?
2. Why is Señora Leona hostile to Negi?
3. Why does Doña Cony choose Negi to close the dead baby's eyes? Why does Negi agree to do it? What is her reaction after she has done it? What is the meaning of the ceremony?
4. In what way does Señora Leona make a fool of herself before Papi's arrival? What kind of a lesson does Negi learn here about education and learning? Why is Señora Leona such a bad teacher?
5. Why is Mami no longer able to work a steady job?
6. Why does ironing make Negi feel closer to Mami?
7. What is Negi's reaction to the service at the Iglesia San Juan Bautista de Paz y Misericordia? Why is she unable to join in the throng of passionate worshippers?
8. Why does Papi support Negi in her wish to play the piano? Why is Mami against it? What do their different attitudes say about their characters?
9. Why does Negi admire and envy Tia Generosa her foul mouth?
10. The Santiago children play Caribs and Spaniards. What American game would this resemble? What activities are likely to occur in it?
11. How has Mami changed upon her return from New York? Is the change purely physical, or is it an emotional change, too? How does Negi react to the change in Mami?
12. Why is Negi frightened when she goes into Papi's hideaway?
13. How does Santiago make the geranium plant symbolize the young "casi señorita" Negi?
14. Why does Mami decide to go to New York? Why doesn't Papi stop them? Why won't he marry Mami? How do Negi's feelings for her father change when she leaves for New York?

V. New York

1. In what way is Negi's first impression of New York different from what she expected?
2. How do the Puerto Ricans' interactions with Italians, Jews, and morenos (African-Americans) differ? How do these ethnic groups treat Puerto Ricans?
3. How does Negi respond to the challenges of her new culture? Are there other newly arrived Puerto Ricans at school who respond as she does?
4. How does the feast Tata provides for her grandchildren differ from the feasts the family enjoyed in Puerto Rico?
5. Why is Negi not allowed out after dark?
6. What does Marilyn Monroe symbolize for the young Negi?
7. How does Francisco's death change Mami's attitude toward religion?
8. How does Mami feel about her work at the factory? Do you think that her attitude affects Negi's feelings about work and achievement?
9. Why does Negi accept Chico's dollar? Why doesn't she tell Mami what he has done to her?
10. How does Negi feel about the non Puerto Ricans at the welfare office who pass for Puerto Ricans? Why does she agree to translate their lies?
11. In New York, Mami "can't depend on anyone." [254] Did she have people she could depend on in Puerto Rico? What is it about New York life that forces people into an unusual degree of independence?
12. Why does Negi decide that she wants to be an actress? Does she really want this, or is she just grasping at straws?


In-depth discussion

1. Explain the meaning of the word sinvergüenza. How does Mami apply it to Papi? How does this concept add to stress between the sexes in Macún?
2. How would you define the word dignidad? Is it a code of manners, or of morals? Do the members of the Santiago family show dignidad to the outside world? Do they show it to each other? Does contemporary American mainstream culture have an equivalent of dignidad? If so, how does it manifest itself?
3. In Macún women are expected to behave differently from men. In what ways are men allowed to express their feelings and opinions more directly than women? What special constraints are put upon women in the culture?
4. Mami spanks and hits her children regularly. Do you believe that it causes psychological damage to the children? Does her use of corporal punishment conflict with her role as principal caregiver? Does it make her, in your opinion, a less loving mother?
5. Certain contradictions in Puerto Rican culture are symbolized by the juxtaposition in Santurce of the Evangelical church and the botanica. How does each one minister to the spiritual needs of the people? How do the different belief systems of the Puerto RicansóChristian, African, Native Americanómanifest themselves in the Santiago family? Are they religious? Superstitious?
6. How do the residents of Mac™n perceive Americans? In what way are they hostile to them? Do they ever try to emulate them?
7. When Papi is working, he works hardóseven days a week. But Mami works even harder. Do you accept the cultural expectations that force Mami to wait on Papi, that give him plenty of time to read magazines or go out with his friends while she spends all of her time on housework? How do household tasks tend to be divided in your own culture? Doña Lola says to her son Tato, "Let me serve you," adding under her breath, "Men are so useless." [115] In what way is this statement typical of how the women of Mac™n look at the men? Does a similar attitude exist in the United States? Later, Negi says, "Men are such pigs!" [118] This is a concept Negi has received from the women around her as well as from the culture at large. How does such mutual contempt poison the Santiagos' family life?
8. The narrator vividly contrasts Tio Lalo's family with Negi's own. Which set of parents are outwardly more conventional and "better citizens?" Which are the better parents? What explanation, if any, is there for Lalo and Angelina's different treatment of their two daughters? What does Angelina's Evangelical religion mean in the family's life? Is it, in Negi's eyes, a religion of love?
9. What do the Puerto Ricans watch on television? What do you think it means for a culture to have so much of its popular entertainment imported from another culture? Does it strengthen or weaken the native culture? What might educators do to diminish the overwhelming impact of a borrowed culture?
10. What idea of love does Negi receive from the radio programs and romantic novels she devours? In what way does her principal model of a love relationshipóthat of her parentsócontrast with this model? What kind of messages is Negi receiving about love, and will she ever be able to reconcile them? Is sexófor example, her encounter with the truck driverófully a part of her idea of love? What does it mean in Negi's world to be "señorita"? Why is her position as "casi señorita" such a difficult one?
11. How is Negi changed by winning her conflict with Mr. Grant? In asserting herself, does she behave differently than she would have in Puerto Rico? In what way does this conflict epitomize certain differences between American and Puerto Rican culture? Will Negi's victory cause her to change her ideas of dignidad and of respect for her elders? Will it cause her to change her ideas of correct feminine behavior?
12. In what way does the audition at the High School for the Performing Arts symbolize the many barriers Negi has to cross in order to escape Brooklyn, cultural ghettoization, and her life of poverty?
13. What, in your opinion, is the significance of the book's title? Does the author feel that now, as an American, she is no longer a Puerto Rican? In what way is Negi irrevocably changed by her move to the United States? What does she mean when, at the end of the book, she calls herself a hybrid?

BEYOND THE BOOK

1. In writing When I Was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago encountered difficulties in finding appropriate English terms for some of the Puerto Rican concepts she was trying to convey. She decided to leave many of these words in Spanish, providing a glossary at the end of the book. Can you explain why she might have had such difficulty finding English terms for concepts like dignidad, jíbaro, or toda una señorita? Can you come up with equivalent words in English? Can you think of any American words or phrases that might be similarly difficult to translate?

2. In Puerto Rican culture, especially during the Fifties when Esmeralda Santiago was a child, boys and girls had different roles and expectations in life. When I Was Puerto Rican is written very much from a female point of view; coming from a man or a boy, the events might look different. Pretend that you are Papi. Write a few paragraphs from his point of view, telling about his life with and away from Mami, about his feelings for his children, about his hopes and dreams and frustrations.

3. When Mami takes a job, the other women of Macún are disapproving and, as Mami is intelligent enough to realize, jealous. Mami finds pride and fulfillment in her work. How do you feel about mothers going to work? Do you support Mami's decision, as Negi does? Do you feel that Negi is faced with too much responsibility as a result of Mami's absence?

4. How is the word "imperialist" defined in When I Was Puerto Rican? Does Papi's explanation tell the whole story, or is the issue more complex? Look up "imperialism" in the encyclopedia and read about the different empires which have attempted to impose their cultures on subject peoples. Choose one of the following nations: Great Britain, Spain, France, the United States, the Soviet Union. Write a short essay on the ways in which that nation spread its culture through colonization and commerce. Different parts of our own country were at times colonies of Great Britain, Spain, Holland, and France. What aspects of American culture are derived from those countries?

5. When Negi begins school in Brooklyn, none of her classes are in Spanish: she is thrown into an English-speaking classroom and by necessity learns English. Nowadays, many city schools provide bilingual education for non-Anglophones. Do you believe that bilingual education would be appropriate for students like Negi and her siblings? Or should immigrants to the United States be obliged to function in English as quickly as possible? Talk to your fellow students and to your teachers about this issue. Write a short essay delineating your point of view.

6. At the welfare office, Negi and Mami encounter women who are trying to obtain welfare payments even though they are not Puerto Rican. Do you think they are justified in this quest? Do you think that Negi made the right decision in agreeing to help them? What about women with as many children as Mami has? Do you think such women should receive higher welfare payments because of the additional children?

OTHER TITLES OF INTEREST

Also available in a Spanish-language edition:
Cuando era puertorriqueña: 0-679-75677-9 and Teacher's Guide: 0-394-26676-5


Isabel Allende: The Infinite Plan; Harold Autenbraum and Ilan Stevens, eds.: Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories; Sandra Cisneros: The House on Mango Street; Jill Ker Conway: The Road From Coorain; Alma Gomez, Cherrie Moraga, Mariana Romo-Carmona, eds.: Cuentos: Stories by Latinas; Nicolas Kanellos, ed.: Short Fiction by Hispanic Writers of the United States; Oscar Lewis: La Vida; Alfredo Lopez: DoÒa Licha's Island: Modern Colonialism in Puerto Rico; Nicholosa Mohr: Nilda; Rosario Morales and Aurora Levins Morales, Getting Home Alive; Edward Rivera: Family Installments: Memories of Growing Up Hispanic; Earl Shorris: Latinos: A Biography of the People; Julia Alvarez: How the Garc'a Girls Lost Their Accents; Betty Smith: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Claude Brown: Manchild in the Promised Land.

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

This teacher's guide was written by Brooke Allen. Brooke Allen has a Ph.D. in literature from Columbia University, and has spent several years in France as a teacher and a journalist. She writes regularly on books for The New Criterion, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1994 by VINTAGE BOOKS

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