BIOGRAPHY - CRITICISM
Esmeralda Santiago was born in Puerto Rico, the eldest of eleven
children raised by a single mother. When she was thirteen years old, the
family moved to Brooklyn, New York. Within two years, she had learned
enough English to be accepted into the prestigious Performing Arts High
School. She spent eight years studying part-time at community colleges
while working full-time, until she was accepted as a transfer student to
Harvard University with a full scholarship and received her Master's
degree from Sarah Lawrence College. Upon graduating magna cum laude in
1976, she and Frank Cantor, her husband, founded Cantomedia, a film and
production company that has won numerous awards for excellence in
documentary filmmaking. She has done extensive work for victims of
domestic violence, including helping found a Youth Service Center and a
shelter for battered women in Massachusetts.
Her first book, a
memoir of her childhood entitled When I Was Puerto Rican appeared
in 1993 to great critical acclaim. She soon followed this memoir with
the novel America's Dream. Her most recent novel is entitled
Almost a Woman. Aside from her achievements as a writer, Esmeralda
Santiago is also an editor. Her work as an editor may be seen in Las
Christmas: Favorite Latino Authors Share Their Holiday Memories.
Currently, Santiago lives in Westchester County, New York, with her
husband and two children.
Santiago's memoir of her Puerto Rican childhood culminates in her
move to New York, where she gained an education, but lost the sense of
belonging, within a family and within a culture, once so strong in her
childhood. Santiago gives the point of view of the child in the earlier
sections of the memoir. "Santiago's autobiographical account
cinematically recaptures her past and her island culture. What is
particularly appealing about Santiago's story is the insight it offers
to readers unaware of the double bind Puerto Rican Americans find
themselves in: the identity in conflict. Is [she] black or white? Is she
rural or urban? Even more importantly, is she Puerto Rican or is she
American? [One] can only be grateful that Esmeralda Santiago has chosen
to explore her culture and share what she has found." (The Los
Angeles Times Book Review) Santiago communicates the textures of
life (how to eat a guava, the ceremony for ushering a dead baby's soul
to heaven) in Puerto Rico most vividly, while at the same time dealing
concretely with family relationships and conflicts. Her journey to a new
country, like that of many Puerto Ricans touched on in her book,
captures the experience of many American immigrant groups.
Santiago refers to her memoir, "When I began writing [When I Was
Puerto Rican], I had no idea it would result in a dialogue about
cultural identity. But as I've traveled around the country talking about
it, people tell me that, while the culture I'm describing may not be the
same as the one they grew up in, the feelings and experiences are
familiar, and some of the events could have been taken from their own
lives. It has been particularly poignant to speak to immigrants who have
returned to their countries, only to discover how much they have changed
by immersion in North American culture. They accept and understand the
irony of the past tense in the title, the feeling that, while at one
time they could not identify themselves as anything but the nationality
to which they were born, once they've lived in the U.S. their 'cultural
purity' has been compromised, and they no longer fit as well in their
native countries, nor do they feel one hundred percent comfortable as
Americans."
The merging of two cultures proves to be a challenge to many
immigrants, and Santiago explores these difficulties of change in her
memoir. In her words, hopes of finding a balance between the two
cultures is of utmost importance. In finding the balance, merging the
past with the future, perhaps Santiago will be able to understand and
claim her identity. "When I returned to Puerto Rico after living in New
York for seven years, I was told I was no longer Puerto Rican because my
Spanish was rusty, my gaze too direct, my personality too assertive for
a Puerto Rican woman, and I refused to eat some of the traditional foods
like morcilla and tripe stew. I felt as Puerto Rican as when I left the
island, but to those who had never left, I was contaminated by
Americanisms, and therefore, had become less than Puerto Rican. Yet, in
the United States, my darkness, my accented speech, my frequent lapses
into the confused silence between English and Spanish identified me as
foreign, non-American. In writing the book I wanted to get back to that
feeling of Puertoricanness I had before I came here. Its title reflects
who I was then, and asks, who am I today?"
The novel America's Dream shares similar themes to When I
Was Puerto Rican. The novel may be seen in light of cultural
identification, as the main character America merges her Puerto Rican
culture with that of the American culture. However, there is also
another theme that permeates the novel. The relationships of mothers and
daughters and the time of childhood, appear to be one of the focal
points of the novel. "This coming of age memoir will reintroduce you to
childhood. . . . It will speak to anyone who . . . recalls a child's
bittersweet loss of innocence and to anyone who simply enjoys good
writing." (Miami Herald) America's relationship with her mother
as well as her daughter depicts the cycle of womanhood and motherhood,
that exists in the Puerto Rican culture. In America's effort to overcome
the limitations given to the cycle of womanhood and motherhood, she
faces the challenge of not losing her bond with both her mother and her
daughter. The novel explores the complexity of maintaining rather than
severing the bond that exists between the two, despite distance and
hardships.
Another relationship explored in the novel by Santiago is the cycle
of abusive relationships, which is seen through America's relationship
with her boyfriend, Correa, who is the father of her daughter. Santiago,
in writing this novel, illustrates the challenges of a woman in the
Puerto Rican culture. The difficulty of rising from lower class society
and making a future for oneself seems almost unattainable. America's
dream signifies the hope in change. In dreaming of having her own home,
driving her own car, and having an ideal family, America takes the
reader through an emotional and psychological journey into the
challenges of many Latina women.
It is Santiago's eloquence with words that capture the essence of her
writing style and her search for cultural identity. Using words as her
medium, Santiago paints a beautiful picture of her life. Santiago writes
with such clarity and fierceness that it is impossible for any person
not to see, feel and understand what she went through in her remarkable
journey.
Santiago's style allows for easy reading while providing deep
insights about cultural identity. Whether through personal conflicts
about searching for one's identity or overcoming trials and fears that
accompany such a search, Santiago captures these experiences in showing
how strong will and determination can defeat even the most difficult
circumstances.