Characters
Themes
Ethical Values
Key Words/Places
Symbolism
100
Her resentment toward her siblings for taking up her time and space manifested into hatred and jealousy for ________ and _________These were two spoiled girls who had one or no siblings and had a lot of possessions. Negi knew it was wrong to dislike them but she couldn’t help herself. They were able to be free, play alone; they didn’t have to share clothes, beds, toys or parents.
Who are Negi's cousins Jenny and Angie?
100
A 13 year old girl is responsible for looking after her siblings while her unwed mother goes to work. The father of the seven children is in the picture and does contribute to the family, but it is Negi's responsibility to look after her siblings until their mother has to go to New York to look for work. The father does not go with, therefore leaving the women and the children to travel alone and start a new life and family all on their own.
What is The role of women?
100
The idea of how Santiago describes her world, in both its beauty and its sadness, with a clear-eyed evocation of the tastes, smells, and sounds of the Puerto Rican countryside, and the rituals, concerns, and joys of her big, unruly family. For all its poverty and privation, however, Esmeralda is comfortable in this environment and knows who she is. But at 13, she moves with her mother and sisters to the alien, urban world of New York City. Here she must remake herself while struggling with a new language, a new culture, and a bewildering new set of rules and expectations of how a girl should behave.
What is Adaptability?
100
This was the pre-Columbian name for the island of Puerto Rico.
What is Borinquen?
100
Black bugs, like ants, but bigger and blacker.
What are termites?
200
She is a strong woman and works in factories when Negi’s father leaves for weeks on end unannounced. Negi wants her to herself, but she has to share her with her siblings, and when she goes to work: “_______ served us, helped us dress, sent us off to school, and left for her own job in a fog of pain that obliterated all hope, all romance.”
Who is Mami (Negi's Mother)?
200
Moving to New York meant changing to an American school. This would be another chance to face the difference of culture within the education system of Puerto Rico and America. Negi found herself as an outcast. In Puerto Rico Negi was a good strait A student who was able to keep
What is The role of Education?
200
When Negi was a young girl, she lived in a tiny house in Macún, Puerto Rico. Her family moved around a great deal because of her father’s unsteady job and her parents constant bickering. They moved to Santurce, a suburb of San Juan, several times. During this time her mother was pregnant numerous times. Being the oldest, Negi was frequently called upon to watch the children and take responsibility for them.
What is Family Commitment?
200
Santiago grew up in this area of Puerto Rico before moving to New York.
What is Macún?
200
The word for "dignity" in America; Manners.
What is Dignidad?
300
With constant moving around and the nonstop bickering of her parents, it was tough for _______ to find her identity. A move to the big city changed her life forever. By the end of the novel she became a very successful woman.
Who is Negi?
300
Immigrants are required to live their lives in a constant balance between the identity they have formed in their home countries and the identity they must create for themselves in their host countries. Santiago's seemingly inherent sense of being an outsider contributes to her over all feeling of being left out and not belonging anywhere. Before even setting foot in America, Santiago relates to the reader her personal discomfort with the idea of a dual identity. In a search for identity, a young Santiago discusses the nature of nicknames with her parents. As an immigrant, Santiago feels as though she is neither completely a part of the Puerto Rican culture, nor completely part of the American culture. 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.
What is The role of Immigration?
300
Negi decided she wanted to be on television. She tried out for the Performing Arts School. She thought her interview went horrible, but she was accepted. She went on to graduate the Performing Arts School and later attended Harvard where she graduated with highest honors.
What is Freedom?
300
The United States military has engaged in military training and bomb testing on this Puerto Rican island, against the protests of many Puerto Ricans and American citizens.
What is Vieques?
300
Author of, When I Was Puerto Rican
Who is Esmeralda Santiago?
400
Negi's mother travels to New York a few times to see a specialist about _________'s foot. After traveling to New York, Negi's mother decided there would be more opportunities for her family there.
Who is Raymond?
400
Santiago illustrates how the cultural struggles Puerto Ricans endure upon migrating to the United States mirror challenges already present on the island itself. When Santiago's family arrived in New York and settled in the tenements of Brooklyn, she continued to experience hardships similar to those she had faced in Puerto Rico. The poverty was the same, except that an urban setting of concrete and asphalt had replaced the rural setting on the island. In one scene, Negi (as the author was called as a child) lies “in the unheated rooms full of beds and clothes and the rustle of sleeping bodies, terrified that what lay around the corner was no better than what we'd left behind, that being in Brooklyn was not a new life but a continuation of the old one” (Santiago, p. 247). As we find out in the book's epilogue, however, life does change for Negi, as she gains admission to the High School for Performing Arts and attends Harvard University. She now holds degrees from Harvard University and Sarah Lawrence College.
What is The role of Social Class?
400
Esmeralda Santiago uses her experiences as an immigrant in an urban space as inspiration for much of her work. Her memories as a working class immigrant, the awful housing conditions, lack of work, difficulty in assimilating and determination to succeed sometimes appear to be the stereotypical Puerto Rican immigrant story, however, they are brutally honest. Santiago’s experiences of discrimination and instability added greatly to not only her identity but her writing as well. It is because of the documentation of her struggles that she has made an impact on countless women also in search of their identity and for Latina/o readers attempting to assimilate into American culture without giving up their own culture and past.
What is Loyalty?
400
Rural Puerto Rican with distinctive dialect and customs.
What is a jíbaro?
400
The narrator of the novel.
Who is Esmeralda Santiago
500
Mami fell in love with a man named _________ the first winter they lived in New York. The following summer was the summer Marilyn Monroe died. They moved to the Projects with this man. He soon found out that he had cancer at the same time Mami became pregnant once again. He spent many days in the hospital, but he could not fight off the cancer and died.
Who is Francisco?
500
After 13 years of defining herself in Puerto Rico, Negi must remake herself while struggling with a new language, a new culture, and a bewildering new set of rules and expectations of how a girl should behave.
What is The Role of Identity?
500
Negi was taught the basic rules of conduct outside the home early on in her childhood. These are called "Dignidad" or manners, "Buenos Modales". These are very specific and respectful. Many of these could be instilled in people of any culture and that culture would benefit. At a very young age Negi not only did her best to live by these rules of conduct but actually remembered all of these rules. Dignidad were to be used in public with the idea of the same Dignidad being returned to you out of respect.
What is Respect?
500
Flirtatious comments men make to women as they pass.
What are piropos?
500
________ was the one to explain to Negi what death meant. What was going on and what it was about.
Who is Negi's Papi?
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