
When I Was Puerto Rican
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Narrated by:
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Esmeralda Santiago
About this listen
“The jíbaro can never wash away the stain of the plantain,” declares Esmeralda “Negi” Santiago as she begins telling her story. In this poignant audiobook, the first volume of her memoirs, she explores what it means to be Puerto Rican in the United States.
Esmeralda Santiago reminisces about her childhood in Puerto Rico and her early years in Brooklyn as the oldest of seven (soon to be 11) children. Her upbringing is turbulent on account of her parents’ relentless fighting, which only ever seems to stop when they decide to have another baby. When her youngest brother has an accident, her mother decides to move to New York with her children to seek medical treatment. Arriving in the United States, 13-year-old Santiago experiences uprooting and a loss of identity while she tries to adapt to a culture and language that are foreign to her.
The author herself narrates the memoir, which provides an additional emotional element to the story. Hearing her talk about the taste, color and smell of guavas makes the listener almost feel the texture of the fruit on their lips. It’s inspiring to hear a female perspective of what it’s like to be an immigrant pursuing the American dream.
When I was Puerto Rican is not only the literary debut of an extraordinary author and an entertaining autobiography sprinkled with touches of humor, but it is also a cultural text. This listen’s themes are so relevant that many schools across the country include it in the curriculum. It has also been adapted for the stage on several occasions.
©2006 Esmeralda Santiago (P)2018 CANTOMEDIAListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
It is 1898, and groups of starving Puerto Ricans, los hambrientos, roam the parched countryside and dusty towns begging for food. Under the yoke of Spanish oppression, the Caribbean island is forced to prepare to wage war with the United States. Up in the mountainous coffee region of Utuado, Vicente Vega and Valentina Sanchez labor to keep their small farm from the creditors. When the Spanish-American War and the great San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899 bring devastating upheaval, the young couple is lured, along with thousands of others, to the sugar plantations of Hawaii.
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Loved it!
- By Ebitimi Igbaseimokumo on 01-30-23
By: Marisel Vera
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When We Make It
- By: Elisabet Velasquez
- Narrated by: Elisabet Velasquez
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican question asker who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister, Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has long been denied.
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Unexpectedly mad good
- By L Morales on 06-19-25
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Puerto Rico - Historia de una nación
- By: Jorell Meléndez-Badillo
- Narrated by: Pedro Juan Colón
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Una novedosa y osada visión de la historia de Puerto Rico, desde la época precolombina, hasta hoy día. La historia de Puerto Rico ha estado marcada por conquistas y resistencias. A lo largo de los siglos los puertorriqueños han creado y sorteado complejas ideas sobre lo que significa pertenecer a una nación. En este libro, Jorell Meléndez-Badillo ofrece una nueva interpretación de la historia de Puerto Rico que da voz a los habitantes del archipiélago y propone una nueva perspectiva sobre los retos políticos, económicos y sociales a los que se enfrentan hoy en día.
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Una épica boricua
- By Anonymous User on 05-28-25
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The Young Lords
- A Radical History
- By: Johanna Fernández
- Narrated by: Joana Garcia
- Length: 23 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Against the backdrop of America's escalating urban rebellions in the 1960s, an unexpected cohort of New York radicals unleashed a series of urban guerrilla actions against the city's racist policies and contempt for the poor. Their dramatic flair, uncompromising vision, and skillful ability to link local problems to international crises riveted the media, alarmed New York's political class, and challenged nationwide perceptions of civil rights and black power protest. The group called itself the Young Lords.
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Horrible reader.
- By Joseph narvaez on 06-28-21
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The Moor's Account
- By: Laila Lalami
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In this stunning work of historical fiction, Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America--a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. In 1527 the conquistador Pnfilo de Narvez sailed from the port of Sanlcar de Barrameda with a crew of 600 men and nearly a hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and famous as Hernn Corts.
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Terrific read evoking 16th century New World life
- By William on 11-04-15
By: Laila Lalami
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Clap When You Land
- By: Elizabeth Acevedo
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Acevedo, Melania Luisa Marte
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times best-selling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.
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Narration
- By VB on 06-05-20
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Latin History for Morons
- By: John Leguizamo
- Narrated by: John Leguizamo
- Length: 1 hr and 19 mins
- Original Recording
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Performance
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Story
When his son gets a school assignment on heroes, John seizes the chance to teach him all about the great figures of the Latino world. But once he sets out on his irreverent crash course across three continents and 3,000 years of history - from conquistadores to cumbia, Montezuma to Menudo, and taking on the characters in all of it - he uncovers provocative truths that shock even him.
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Well
- By Amy Cueto on 11-25-19
By: John Leguizamo
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Puerto Rican Spanish
- A Guide to the Spanish Dialect of Puerto Rico
- By: Angelica Torres
- Narrated by: Tiffany Yi
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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This audio guide focuses on the Spanish dialect as spoken in Puerto Rico and also includes an overview of Puerto Rican culture as expressed through its language. Content is organized into more than 10 simple sessions, including the opportunity to review content later in the course. Topics covered include vocabulary that you can put to use daily, such as food, numbers, places, and many others. Before you know it, you will build an intermediate understanding of Puerto Rican Spanish through this course, including an understanding of some of the nuances of Puerto Rican linguistics and culture.
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This is a great way to learn a language
- By Fernando Falcoff on 04-07-23
By: Angelica Torres
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Once I Was You
- A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America
- By: Maria Hinojosa
- Narrated by: Maria Hinojosa
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning journalist who, for nearly 30 years, has reported on stories and communities in America that often go ignored by the mainstream media - from tales of hope in the South Bronx to the unseen victims of the war on terror and the first detention camps in the US. Best-selling author Julia Álvarez has called her “one of the most important, respected, and beloved cultural leaders in the Latinx community”. In Once I Was You, Maria shares her intimate experience growing up Mexican American on the South Side of Chicago.
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Fabulous!!
- By andrea L. on 01-13-21
By: Maria Hinojosa
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Conquistadora
- By: Esmeralda Santiago
- Narrated by: Esmeralda Santiago
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
As a young girl growing up in Spain, Ana Larragoity Cubillas is powerfully drawn to Puerto Rico by the diaries of an ancestor who traveled there with Ponce de León. And in handsome twin brothers Ramón and Inocente - both in love with Ana - she finds a way to get there. She marries Ramón, and in 1844, just 18, she travels across the ocean to a remote sugar plantation the brothers have inherited on the island. Ana faces unrelenting heat, disease and isolation, and the dangers of the untamed countryside....
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Conquuistadora
- By Jan on 08-11-11
Prior to this book Michele Obama held the #1 spot, now I think there’s a tie for first place. Ms Santiago is engaging, believable, honest and interesting. She is an excellent storyteller!
I have only one complaint about this book, it ended. I have already downloaded “Almost a Woman” and I’m starting it now!
Just SO good!
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A glimpse in my family past
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excellent novel
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Praise
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Easy read, interesting insight.
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Loved it!
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great realistic Puerto rican story
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Great Book
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fascinating
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childhood revisited
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