Almost a Woman - Hardcover

From a three-room apartment in Brooklyn occupied by ten family members, Esmeralda Santiago begins a journey that is both a triumphant struggle for identity and independence, and a mother's worst nightmare. Challenged by language barriers, cultural stereotypes, and the fiercely protective Mami, Santiago continues the rollicking ascent she began in When I Was Puerto Rican. By day she perfects the role of Cleopatra at Performing Arts High School and interprets for the family at city welfare offices. At night she accompanies her mother and sisters to Latin dance halls, but on such a strict leash that she has her first date at the age of twenty. Undaunted, she makes up for lost time in a romantic apprenticeship at once hilarious and heartbreaking.

Moving beyond her poignant childhood story, When I Was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago recalls her extraordinary journey into womanhood.. From the barrios of Brooklyn to the stage at the high School of Performing Arts and later to Harvard, Almost a Woman continues Santiagos amazing story of a young woman caught between two worlds. This is a tale of transformation, comedy, and survival, both a search for independence and cultural identity as well as a mother/daughter struggle of heroic dimensions. }From the barrios of Brooklyn to the stage at the High School of Performing Arts and later to Harvard, Almost a Woman continues Esmeralda Santiagos amazing story of a young woman caught between two worlds. The oldest of eleven children, she is kept on such a strict leash by her powerful mother that at the age of seventeen she had not yet gone on a date. By no means sheltered however, she is experienced in the harsh realities of welfare offices, beaten up by jealous classmates at junior high school, and taunted by her brothers and sisters as she struggles to learn Eastern Standard English. She eventually breaks loose and elopes with a mysterious, perhaps dangerous, Turkish entrepreneur. Almost a Woman is a tale of transformation, comedy, and survival, both a search for independence and cultural identity as well as a mother/daughter struggle of heroic dimensions. Santiagos fans will eagerly embrace this long-awaited volume. }