When I Was Puerto Rican By Esmeralda Santiago

The Wrong Love: An Analysis of When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
Most people have a solid definition of what love is; we see it in media; we see it in our own lives; it’s everywhere. After turning on the TV or the radio for about 10 minutes, you will soon discover the definition of love. But what if your definition of love happens to not match anyone else’s? What if you find out that it is different, or daresay even “wrong”? Many people develop a warped sense of love, sometimes from exposure to dysfunctional, toxic parental relationships falsely named “love” as a child. Gorgeous- maybe play with the wording a little to make it flow more. This is essentially what happened with Negi in the autobiography When I Was Puerto Rican by

During this quote, Negi is explaining a drastic action that her mother frequently takes when she is fighting with Papi. Simultaneously, she is giving her readers context as to why her living situation has changed. The quote reads: “Whenever Mami was fed up with Macún, or with Papi, she ran away to Santurce”. (Santiago, 37) After the quote, Negi explains that she moved from Papi to the town of Santurce, Puerto Rico with her mother. This setting, and subsequent moves later, shows that Mami can be immature and not the best at problem-solving and conflict mediation if her only solution to being “fed up” is to move away. This is also proven to be a habitual action that Mami takes, because of Santiago’s use of the word “Whenever”. This once again shows Santiago’s mastery of diction. This also is not great for Negi, as children tend to replicate their parents' behaviors, and running away from your problems is rarely effective, but something that Negi does in fact do later in the book when she was dealing with Senora Leona. Mami’s move to Santurce is also shown to be ineffective since Papi visits later, and they eventually end up moving back in with him. One can say that this specific quote cannot reveal much about Santiago, but it actually shows that Negi is

One experience where this is especially true is described in the following quote. The context needed is that Negi was looking out of the window and a man in a truck started masturbating to her, but when she smiled at him, he stopped immediately, and she blames this on herself. “I wonder what I’d done, why she stuffed his now limp penis back into his pants…Whatever he’d wanted from me he didn’t want anymore, and I was certain it was because I was too willing to give it to him. (Santiago, 240) However, with the use of the phrasing “I wonder what I’d done” she knows his reason for stopping was unusual. This means that on some level, she knows that it was not her fault. This internal debate between Negi is shown in just five words, which only showcases how much word choice is her forte. We also see Negi blaming herself, for something that is not her fault. This means that she will have no choice but to turn to the example of love that her parents set. However, this also shows that she has a tendency towards negative self-talk, such as “I was too willing to give it to him”, which may be because of the circumstances she grew up in. The setting, her being inside and him being outside, shows that this experience that affected her so negatively happened against