---
title: "When I Was Puerto Rican | American Lit"
description: "When I Was Puerto Rican is Esmeralda Santiago’s memoir of growing up in Puerto Rico and adapting to life in New York, central to Latino literature in American Lit."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms/when-i-was-puerto-rican"
type: "key-term"
subject: "American Literature – 1860 to Present"
unit: "Unit 9"
---

# When I Was Puerto Rican | American Lit

## Definition

When I Was Puerto Rican is Esmeralda Santiago’s memoir about childhood in Puerto Rico and her move to New York. In American Literature since 1860, it is read as a Chicano/Latino literature text about identity, migration, and belonging.

## What It Is

When I Was Puerto Rican is Esmeralda Santiago’s memoir of growing up in rural Puerto Rico and then moving to New York City as a child. In American Literature since 1860, the book is read as a personal coming-of-age story that also speaks to larger questions about migration, cultural identity, and what it means to belong in more than one place.

The memoir does not just tell you what happened in Santiago’s childhood. It shows how memory, language, family, and place shape identity. Santiago writes about a world where Puerto Rican traditions, family roles, and local life feel familiar and grounding, and then she places that world beside the pressures of U.S. life, where she has to adjust to a new language, new expectations, and a different social environment.

That makes the memoir a strong fit for Chicano/Latino literature. Even though Santiago is Puerto Rican rather than Mexican American, the text shares a lot with the broader Latino literary tradition in the course: bicultural experience, the tension between home and assimilation, and the search for a self that is not split into a simple either/or choice. A reader is meant to feel how identity can be layered, unfinished, and constantly negotiated.

Santiago also uses vivid sensory detail, which matters in a memoir built from memory. Her descriptions make setting feel alive, so Puerto Rico is not just a backdrop, it is part of how she understands herself. When the narrative shifts toward the United States, that same attention to detail helps show why migration can feel both hopeful and disorienting.

A common mistake is to treat the memoir as only a story about relocation. In this course, it matters because it shows how personal narrative can reveal larger patterns in American literature, especially the experiences of people moving between cultures, languages, and social worlds.

## Why It Matters

This memoir matters because it gives you a clear example of how American literature after 1860 widened beyond older mainstream Anglo-American voices. It belongs in conversations about Chicano and Latino literature, where writers often explore bilingual life, migration, racialized identity, and the pressure to translate yourself for a new culture.

It also gives you a useful model for reading memoir as literature, not just autobiography. You can track how Santiago shapes memory into scenes, how she uses detail to create tone, and how she builds themes through everyday moments instead of big historical speeches. That is a skill you can carry into other prose texts in the course.

The memoir is especially useful for essays about identity and belonging. If a prompt asks how a character or narrator balances two cultures, or how setting shapes identity, this book gives you specific evidence to use. It also connects to broader course themes like the American Dream, assimilation, and the costs of starting over in a new place.

## Connections

### Cultural Identity

Santiago’s memoir centers on how identity changes across place, language, and family expectations. She is not presented as one fixed self, but as someone shaped by Puerto Rican culture and then challenged by American life. That makes the text a strong example of identity as something lived and negotiated, not something simple or static.

### Migration

The move from Puerto Rico to New York is the turning point that changes the memoir’s emotional and social landscape. Migration here is not only travel, it is a shift in power, language, and belonging. The text shows how movement across borders can create opportunity while also producing loss and confusion.

### Coming-of-Age

The memoir works as a coming-of-age narrative because Santiago grows up while learning how to interpret two different worlds. Her childhood experiences are not just background, they are the process through which she becomes aware of class, culture, gender roles, and selfhood. That makes personal growth inseparable from cultural transition.

### [nepantla](/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms/nepantla)

Neplantla describes being in-between worlds, and Santiago’s experience fits that feeling well. She is not fully rooted in one culture or the other, especially after moving to the United States. The memoir shows the discomfort and flexibility of that in-between space, which is a useful lens for Latino literature.

## On the AP Exam

A quiz question or passage analysis may ask you to identify the memoir’s main themes, explain how Santiago presents bicultural identity, or connect the text to Latino literature. Use specific moments from the memoir to show how memory, language, and setting shape the narrator’s sense of self.

If you get a short-answer prompt, don’t just say it is about immigration. Show how the move changes the way Santiago sees family, school, and belonging. In an essay, you might compare the Puerto Rico sections and the New York sections to explain how the memoir turns a personal childhood into a larger story about cultural transition.

## When I Was Puerto Rican vs Bless Me, Ultima

Both texts are often taught in Latino literature units and both focus on identity, culture, and growing up between worlds. The difference is that When I Was Puerto Rican is a memoir based on Santiago’s real childhood, while Bless Me, Ultima is a novel by Rudolfo Anaya with a fictional narrator and a more symbolic structure.

## Key Takeaways

- When I Was Puerto Rican is Esmeralda Santiago’s memoir about childhood in Puerto Rico and the move to New York.
- In American Literature since 1860, the text is often read as part of Chicano and Latino literature because it explores bicultural identity and migration.
- The memoir uses vivid sensory detail and memory-driven scenes, so setting feels tied to identity instead of acting like simple background.
- A big idea in the book is that belonging can feel split, since Santiago has to live between Puerto Rican heritage and American life.
- You should read the text as more than a personal story, because it connects one child’s experience to larger questions about assimilation and culture.

## FAQs

### What is When I Was Puerto Rican in American Literature since 1860?

It is Esmeralda Santiago’s memoir about growing up in Puerto Rico and later moving to New York City. In the course, it is used to discuss Latino identity, migration, and how memoir can turn childhood memory into literary meaning.

### Is When I Was Puerto Rican a novel or a memoir?

It is a memoir, not a novel. That means Santiago writes from her own life and memory, even though she still shapes the story like literature through scene, detail, and theme.

### How does When I Was Puerto Rican connect to Chicano/Latino literature?

It fits the broader Latino literary tradition because it shows life between cultures, especially the tension between heritage and assimilation. Even though Santiago is Puerto Rican, the memoir shares themes common in Chicano/Latino writing, like language, migration, and cultural belonging.

### What should I look for when analyzing When I Was Puerto Rican?

Look for how Santiago uses memory, setting, and family scenes to build identity. A strong reading will notice the contrast between Puerto Rico and New York, and explain how that contrast shapes the narrator’s voice and sense of self.

## Related Study Guides

- [9.4 Chicano/Latino literature](/american-literature-since-1860/unit-9/chicanolatino-literature/study-guide/01POOG52ZGhTpio6)

## About This Document

Canonical Fiveable pages are available as Markdown at the same path plus `.md`.

- [llms.txt](https://fiveable.me/llms.txt): index of Fiveable's sections and URL patterns
- [llms-full.txt](https://fiveable.me/llms-full.txt): complete subject and unit listing
- [MCP server](https://fiveable.me/mcp): call Fiveable as tools instead of fetching pages (`https://fiveable.me/api/mcp`)
- [MCP server for AP teachers](https://fiveable.me/mcp/teachers): a teacher's classes, assignments and AP-rubric grading (`https://fiveable.me/api/mcp/teacher`)

## Structured Data

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"LearningResource","@id":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms/when-i-was-puerto-rican#resource","name":"When I Was Puerto Rican | American Lit","url":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms/when-i-was-puerto-rican","learningResourceType":"Concept explainer","educationalLevel":"AP® / High School","about":{"@id":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms/when-i-was-puerto-rican#term"},"audience":{"@type":"EducationalAudience","educationalRole":"student"},"dateModified":"2026-07-03T02:20:44.781Z","isPartOf":{"@type":"Collection","name":"American Literature – 1860 to Present Key Terms","url":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Fiveable","url":"https://fiveable.me"}},{"@type":"DefinedTerm","@id":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms/when-i-was-puerto-rican#term","name":"When I Was Puerto Rican","description":"When I Was Puerto Rican is Esmeralda Santiago’s memoir about childhood in Puerto Rico and her move to New York. In American Literature since 1860, it is read as a Chicano/Latino literature text about identity, migration, and belonging.","url":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms/when-i-was-puerto-rican","inDefinedTermSet":{"@type":"DefinedTermSet","name":"American Literature – 1860 to Present Key Terms","url":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms"}},{"@type":"FAQPage","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is When I Was Puerto Rican in American Literature since 1860?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It is Esmeralda Santiago’s memoir about growing up in Puerto Rico and later moving to New York City. In the course, it is used to discuss Latino identity, migration, and how memoir can turn childhood memory into literary meaning."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is When I Was Puerto Rican a novel or a memoir?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It is a memoir, not a novel. That means Santiago writes from her own life and memory, even though she still shapes the story like literature through scene, detail, and theme."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How does When I Was Puerto Rican connect to Chicano/Latino literature?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It fits the broader Latino literary tradition because it shows life between cultures, especially the tension between heritage and assimilation. Even though Santiago is Puerto Rican, the memoir shares themes common in Chicano/Latino writing, like language, migration, and cultural belonging."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What should I look for when analyzing When I Was Puerto Rican?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Look for how Santiago uses memory, setting, and family scenes to build identity. A strong reading will notice the contrast between Puerto Rico and New York, and explain how that contrast shapes the narrator’s voice and sense of self."}}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"American Literature – 1860 to Present","item":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Key Terms","item":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Unit 9","item":"https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/unit-9"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"When I Was Puerto Rican"}]}]}
```