1. Esmeralda Santiago was born on May 17,1948 and is a Puerto Rican author known for her narrative memoirs and trans-cultural writing.
24 Facts About Esmeralda Santiago
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Esmeralda Santiago's impact extends beyond cultivating narratives as she paves the way for more coming-of-age stories about being a Latina in the United States, alongside navigating cultural dissonance through acculturation.
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Esmeralda Santiago was the eldest of eleven children, raised mostly by her mother and partly by her father, though they were never married.
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Esmeralda Santiago's family lived in the countryside and was descended from poor, peasant farmers.
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Esmeralda Santiago attended junior high school in Brooklyn and learned English in two years, then attended New York City's prestigious Performing Arts High School.
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Esmeralda Santiago continued her graduate education at Sarah Lawrence College where she received a Masters in Fine Arts degree in 1992.
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In 2008, Esmeralda Santiago noticed her manuscript, which she wrote the day before, was unintelligible and appeared like a foreign language.
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Esmeralda Santiago's symptoms led her to believe she possibly suffered from a stroke, and after a doctor's visit and tests, her suspicions became confirmed.
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Esmeralda Santiago relearned how to read and write English, as she did when she learned at age 13.
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Children's books with illustrations helped Esmeralda Santiago connect words to the images, teaching her brain to read again.
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Esmeralda Santiago improved enough to complete her novel, but remained unable to do the Spanish translation of her piece herself.
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Esmeralda Santiago continues to write today and can produce about 300 words per day post-stroke, whereas she completed 1000 words a day prior.
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Esmeralda Santiago narrates growing up under imperialistic American ideologies that often conflict with her Puerto Rican culture.
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Esmeralda Santiago experienced cultural dissonance as many Puerto Ricans considered her overly Americanized while Americans racially ostracized her for being Puerto Rican.
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Esmeralda Santiago chose to return to the United States and began publishing short essays and stories in local press.
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Esmeralda Santiago wrote When I was Puerto Rican after gaining attention and encouragement from an editor in the United States.
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Esmeralda Santiago's writing illustrates the important perspective of someone who experiences both Puerto Rican and American culture from an outside lens.
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Esmeralda Santiago's piece includes a scene in which Negi performs a play and celebrates with her American cast-mates at the end.
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Esmeralda Santiago sees her parents far away and notices their cultural differences, and she recognizes the dissonance between her cast-mates and herself.
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Esmeralda Santiago becomes forced to navigate a society in which morality and immorality exist cohesively.
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In writing Conquistadora, Esmeralda Santiago researched and explored Puerto Rican history extensively.
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Esmeralda Santiago creates feminist literature that is catered towards women, promote CP in High Schools paving the way for more women-centered narratives of the Latino experience.
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Additionally, as one of the first to write in this format, Esmeralda Santiago paved the way for exploring Puerto Rican and Latino identities in popular literature.
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Esmeralda Santiago's writing allows more young, Latine, women and youth to feel justified in their journeys for cultural self-identification and fulfillment.