Entre peras y guayabas: construcciones identitarias de Esmeralda Santiago

Abstract

The article analyzes When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, a Puerto Rican writer. This text is the first part of the autobiography of Santiago, in which the author explores her childhood and especially the impact of her migration to the United States on her identity building. Based on her migratory experience, and on the significance of living between two cultures, Santiago claims the right to build her own identity, which comprises both her "Boricuan" past as well as her North American present. This article analyzes how the narrator-protagonist of When I was Puerto Rican builds a narrative of her life with autonomy and independency as the most important autobiographical values (Bakhtin). Besides, this study situates Santiago's autobiographical writing, as well as her huge editorial success, in the context of the boom of reality based stories and of the so called ethnical literature.