When I Was Puerto Rican is a memoir by Esmeralda Santiago, published in 1993 by Da Capo Press. The book is the first of three memoirs that Santiago wrote about her life. The other two, Almost a Woman and The Turkish Lover, cover later periods.
In When I Was Puerto Rican, Santiago writes about her childhood in Puerto Rico. She explores her family life, often turbulent, and details her family’s migration to New York. The book ends when she is fourteen, having just been accepted into New York's High School of Performing Arts. Almost a Woman picks up where When I Was Puerto Rican leaves off, tracking Esmeralda’s teenage years in New York City.
Kirkus Reviews describes the book as “...
