When I Was Puerto Rican

When I Was Puerto Rican

THE TEACHING OF THE NOVEL

II. Content Standards

After reading, discussing, and analyzing the novel assigned to the level, the
students will:

A. Identify and analyze the elements of non-fiction

1. Plot
a. Single Plot

Esmeralda recalls her childhood in Puerto Rico. As a child she lives with mami, papi, and her younger sisters. Shetalks about the birth of her other siblings and about the constant fighting of her parents. Eventually, mami and the children move to another house and she starts to work in a factory and leaves the children with, Gloria, a neighbor. Later on mami tells Esmeralda that she’s going to have to start helping with the children and the housework. One day, while mami is at work and Esmeralda is taking careof the children, Esmeralda’s cousin Jenny starts to give rides to the children in her new bicycle. Jenny overrides Esmeralda’s demand that their siblings must come home and takes Raymond on a ride with her. Raymond’s foot is mangled in the chain of the bike and he’s taken to the hospital. Esmeralda feels responsible though everyone agrees that it was Jenny’s fault.

Raymond's foot continues to bea problem and the doctors begin talking about amputation, which prompts mami to take him to New York in an effort to find better medical treatment. Esmeralda is left behind with her cousins and is angry, not at being left but at being left out of her mother's plans. Mami soon makes another trip to New York and this time returns with a new hairdo, new clothes and a new sense of confidence.Esmeralda's father soon tells her that her mother is planning to move to New York. Once in New York, mami becomes involved with another man, Francisco, with whom she fathers a child, but Francisco soon dies of cancer.

Esmeralda hates her life in New York, saying that she misses the nature of Puerto Rico. She hates the fact that there is so much crime in the city that she is seldom allowed away fromthe house alone and that all the children are kept cooped up inside most of the time.

Esmeralda is asked by a school official what she wants to do and she gives it some thought, eventually gaining some help gaining admittance into a school for performing arts. In the Epilogue, Esmeralda reveals that she was admitted to that school, that she graduated there and was preparing for graduation fromHarvard.

b. Multiple plots

Chapter 1: Jibara

When Esmeralda Santiago is four years old she and her family move to Macun. The family's house is made of tin and the children sleep in hammocks. Esmeralda is called "Negi" because of her darker skin. Esmeralda's mother tells her to stay out of the way as her father repairs the house, but her father lets her help. When Esmeralda picks upthe wood, it is filled with termites which bite Esmeralda. She believes she has been punished for disobeying her mother.

Chapter 2: Fighting Naked

Esmeralda's father leaves the family behind to go into town and mami accuses papi of an affair. During one of her parent’s fight, Esmeralda hears the name "Margie", and later learns that Margie is her half-sister. Esmeralda starts school and shelearns about other types of families. One day Esmeralda comes home from school and finds out that she and her family are going to move to the city.

Chapter 3: Someone is coming to take your Lap

The family moves into a house at La Parada in Santurce outside San Juan. Esmeralda struggles to fit in and the children in school call her "jibara". Esmeralda's mother becomes pregnant with Alicia.Papi visits more frequently after his daughter is born, and eventually, mami and papi reconcile and they all move back to Macun. In Macun, Esmeralda befriends Juanita. When Juanita's grandfather dies, papi participates in the funeral and Esmeralda and Juanita lead the funeral procession to the cemetery. Ramona gives birth to Edna. During a storm in May, Ramona allows the children to play in the...