When I Was Puerto Rican

All of the parents are invited to a meeting at Esmeralda’s school. Officials educate them about proper nutritional and dental care. They show them diagrams of the food pyramid and talk about how important it is that they are healthy, so their children will learn good habits as well. Mami takes the samples of the food they provide so she can use them later, in case they are ever out of food.

At Esmeralda’s school, the children receive polio vaccines. Esmeralda is afraid of the shot, but she tells herself that she will be brave so that the other children will not tease her. While waiting for the shot, she has a discussion with another student, who tells her that the vaccines are being provided by politicians. They’re only giving them shots so that the children’s fathers will vote for them. The boy uses the word “Imperialist” and “gringo” to describe the Americans.

Esmeralda wakes up one morning to find a long worm in her underwear. She has gotten worms. Mami puts her and the other children through a series of nutritional purges to get rid of the parasites. When it is over, Esmeralda asks her father to explain Puerto Rico’s history and imperialism to her. He does, but cautions her never to use the word “gringo” around the Americans, for the same reasons the Americans would never use the word “spic” around them.

The children receive a letter from Tata, their grandmother. Mami ask Esmeralda to write to her in response. She writes the letter, but her mother criticizes it and orders her to do it again. When Esmeralda protests, Mami digs her knuckles into her head in a painful way. Esmeralda can’t believe her mother would hurt her like this.

At the end of the chapter, Esmeralda is eating in the cafeteria. She suddenly feels ill and vomits. By the time she goes home she is incredibly sick, feverish and sweating. She vomits for days.

Esmeralda and her father visit her grandmother for one week. On the way, they stop for food. Esmeralda spins on a stool until she falls off and nearly hurts herself. An old woman tells her that that is what happens to women who misbehave. A man says to ignore the old woman. She’s crazy and “that’s what happens to women who stay jamonas.” Papi tells Esmeralda that a jamona is a woman who never married, and who are now too old to marry. It’s meant as an insult. Then she asks Papi what they call a man who never marries. A driver who overhears says “Lucky,” and everyone laughs. Esmeralda thinks this is the worst insult of all.

Papi leaves her with her grandmother. Esmeralda torments herself with questions and thoughts of why her father wants to go spend time with anyone other than her. She gets so distressed that she purposefully slams her hand in a door. Her grandmother helps her soak her hand and hugs her. Esmeralda enjoys the comfort and senses that this is what parents are supposed to provide to their children.

Esmeralda goes to a Catholic mass with her grandmother. She is unfamiliar with much of the service, but does her best. After, she is waiting in her best clothes for Papi to come and pick her up. He never does. Besides his occasional disappearances from the family home, this is the clearest example yet of literal abandonment. Mami eventually comes to get her. When she arrives, she lingers long enough to talk with Esmeralda’s grandmother about Papi. Esmeralda decides that having a neglectful husband must be one of the worst things in the world. Surely, remaining a jamona must be better than having a husband who won’t fulfill his duties or pay attention to you.