Esmeralda Santiago is a Puerto Rican author and former actress known for her novels and memoirs, with some essays published in The New York Time’s and the Boston Globe. She takes on a unique way of writing bringing in her life’s struggles and lessons while creating amazing pieces of literature. In When I was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago incorporates descriptive language with relatable words to describe the conflict and the challenges that she encounters to achieve the American Dream. One the surface, the message is by traveling through the challenges, anyone can achieve their dreams when determined to do so. The story is told from the perspective of a 13- year old girl who moved from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, New York with her family in the search of greater opportunities, with …show more content…
For instance, while speaking to the guidance counselor, he tells her, “ You’re a smart girl Esmeralda, let 's try to get you into an academic school, so that you have a shot at college.” As that is being said, anyone can feel the intense amount of pressure that was just dropped onto her case. Again, when Mrs. Johnson, the Home Economics Teacher begins to coach her in a sense to prepare her for the audition to attend the Performing Arts school. She tells Esmeralda, “Now sit. No, not like that.. What do you do with your hands? No; don’t hold your chin like that; it’s not ladylike.” Not only does she have this continuous amount of pressure eating at her, she has to physically change her habits to morph herself into this new and improved young lady to fit the role. By using this writing style, the author can grab the reader 's attention with conflict and uses the sequence of events to lead into where the reader will see the outcome of all the work the author had done to accomplish her goal. The author 's purpose for creating this work is best described in the sentence “After all that, I had failed the audition and would never, ever, get out of Brooklyn.” Because despite