“Lyrical [and] haunting, America’s liberating epiphany will have readers . . . on their feet and cheering.” — Washington Post

Deftly written and fiercely resilient, America’s Dream explores the ever-shifting definition of what it means to be American and exemplifies the spirit of every immigrant who has dared to realize the American dream.

America Gonzalez is a hotel housekeeper on Vieques, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico, cleaning up after wealthy foreigners who don’t look her in the eye. Her alcoholic mother resents her; her married boyfriend, Correa, beats her; and their fourteen-year-old daughter thinks life would be better anywhere but with America. So when America is offered the chance to work as a live-in housekeeper and nanny for a family in Westchester, New York, she takes it as a sign to finally make the escape she’s been longing for.

Yet, even as America revels in the comparative luxury of her new life–daring to care about a man other than Correa–she is faced with the disquieting realization that no matter what she does, she can never really escape her past.

En su nueva memoria, la aclamada autora de Cuando era puertorriquena (CE021) continua su cautivante cronica describiendo su salida de los barrios de Brooklyn a los teatros de Manhattan. “Negi,” como carinosamente la llama su familia, deja Macun, un campo de Puerto Rico, en 1961 para vivir en un apartamento de tres habitaciones en un proyecto de viviendas, con siete hermanas y hermanos pequenos, una abuela preguntona, y una mama estricta que no la dejaba salir con muchachos. A los trece anos, Negi anora su propia cama, privacidad, y una vida con su padre, quien permanece en Puerto Rico con su nueva esposa. Mientras traduce para Mami en la oficina delWelfare por la manana, hace el papel de Cleopatra en el prestigioso Performing Arts High School de Nueva York por las tardes, y baila salsa toda la noche, Negi ansia lograr un equilibrio entre ser norteamericana y ser puertorriquena. Cuando desafia a su madre al salir en una serie de graciosisimas citas, Negi descubre que la independencia trae consigo sus propios retos. Una conmovedora historia universal sobre la llegada a la mayoria de edad, a la vez que una valiente y sincera historia de inmigrantes, Casi una mujer es el triunfal camino de Santiago a hacerse mujer.

An epic novel of love, discovery, and adventure by the author of the best-selling memoir When I Was Puerto Rican.

As a young girl growing up in Spain, Ana Larragoity Cubillas is powerfully drawn to Puerto Rico by the diaries of an ancestor who traveled there with Ponce de León. And in handsome twin brothers Ramón and Inocente—both in love with Ana—she finds a way to get there. She marries Ramón, and in 1844, just eighteen, she travels across the ocean to a remote sugar plantation the brothers have inherited on the island.

Ana faces unrelenting heat, disease and isolation, and the dangers of the untamed countryside even as she relishes the challenge of running Hacienda los Gemelos. But when the Civil War breaks out in the United States, Ana finds her livelihood, and perhaps even her life, threatened by the very people on whose backs her wealth has been built: the hacienda’s slaves, whose richly drawn stories unfold alongside her own. And when at last Ana falls for a man who may be her destiny—a once-forbidden love—she will sacrifice nearly everything to keep hold of the land that has become her true home.

This is a sensual, riveting tale, set in a place where human passions and cruelties collide: thrilling history that has never before been brought so vividly and unforgettably to life.

La historia de Esmeralda Santiago comienza en la parte rural de Puerto Rico, donde sus padres y siete hermanos, en continuas luchas los unos con los otros, vivian una vida alborotada pero llena de amor y ternura. De nina, Esmeralda aprendio a apreciar como se come una guayaba, a distinguir la cancion del coqui, a identificar los ingredientes en las morcillas y a ayudar a que el alma de un bebe muerto subiero al cielo. Pero precisamente cuando Esmeralda parecia haberlo aprendido todo sobre su cultura, la llevaron a Nueva York, donde las reglas-y el idioma-eran no solo diferentes, sino tambien desconcertantes. Como Esmeralda supero la adversidad, se gano entrada a la Performing Arts High School y despues continuo a Harvard, de donde se graduo con altos honores, es el realto de la tremenda trayectoria de una mujer verdaderamente extraordinaria.

Las memorias de Esmeralda Santiago, Cuando era puertorriquena, continua con El amante turco. A los 21 anos, Esmeralda se mueve desde Brooklyn para comenzar una vida con Ulvi, una dominante, condescendiente turcos inmigrantes varios anos mayor que ella. Despues de anos de abuso, Esmeralda encuentra la fuerza para obtener un titulo de Harvard y dejar Ulvi, en ultima instancia, demostrando “siempre habra otro tren.”

From the award-winning, best-selling author of When I Was Puerto Rican, a powerful novel of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster that moves between Puerto Rico and the Bronx, revealing the lives and loves of five women and the secret that binds them together

They refer to themselves as “las Madres,” a close-knit group of women who, with their daughters, have created a family based on friendship and blood ties.Their story begins in Puerto Rico in 1975 when fifteen-year-old Luz, the tallest girl in her dance academy and the only Black one in a sea of petite, light-skinned, delicate swans, is seriously injured in a car accident. Tragically, her brilliant, multilingual scientist parents are both killed in the crash. Now orphaned, Luz navigates the pressures of adolescence and copes with the aftershock of a brain injury, when two new friends enter her life, Ada and Shirley. Luz’s days are consumed with aches and pains, and her memory of the accident is wiped clean, but she suffers spells that send her mind to times and places she can’t share with others.

In 2017, in the Bronx, Luz’s adult daughter, Marysol, wishes she better understood her. But how can she when her mother barely remembers her own life? To help, Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela, suggests a vacation in Puerto Rico for the extended group, as an opportunity for Luz to unearth long-buried memories and for Marysol to learn more about her mother’s early life. But despite all their careful planning, two hurricanes, back-to-back, disrupt their homecoming, and a secret is revealed that blows their lives wide open. In a voice that sings with warmth, humor, friendship, and pride, celebrated author Esmeralda Santiago unspools a story of women’s sexuality, shame, disability, and love within a community rocked by disaster.

De la galardonada autora bestseller de Cuando era puertorriqueña, nos llega una poderosa novela sobre la familia, la raza, la fe, el sexo y el desastre que transita entre Puerto Rico y el Bronx, revelando las vidas y los amores de cinco mujeres, y el secreto que las une.

Se hacen llamar “Las Madres”, un grupo muy cercano de mujeres que, junto con sus hijas, han creado una familia basada en la amistad y los lazos de sangre. Su historia comienza en Puerto Rico, en 1975, cuando Luz, de quince años, la niña más alta en su academia de baile y la única negra en un mar de cisnes de piel clara, pequeños y delicados, se lastima de gravedad en un accidente de auto. Trágicamente, sus padres, ambos científicos multilingües brillantes, también mueren en el accidente. Huérfana ahora, Luz sortea las presiones de la adolescencia mientras lidia con las secuelas de una lesión cerebral, cuando dos nuevas amigas entran a su vida, Ada y Shirley. Los días de Luz quedan consumidos por dolores y molestias, y su memoria después del accidente queda por completo en blanco, pero sufre episodios que envían su mente a otros lugares y momentos que no puede compartir con nadie más.
 
En 2017, en el Bronx, la hija adulta de Luz, Marysol, desearía que su madre la comprendiera mejor. Pero, ¿cómo, si Luz apenas recuerda su propia vida? Para ayudar, la hija de Ada y Shirley, Graciela, sugiere que el grupo entero se vaya de vacaciones a Puerto Rico como una oportunidad para que Luz desentierre recuerdos largo tiempo enterrados y Marysol aprenda más sobre los primeros años de su madre. Pero a pesar de toda su cuidadosa planeación, dos huracanes, uno tras otro, alteran su bienvenida y sacan a la luz un secreto que hace estallar sus vidas. En una voz que canta con calidez, humor, amistad y orgullo, la celebrada autora Esmeralda Santiago desarrolla una historia sobre la sexualidad, la vergüenza, la discapacidad y el amor de las mujeres dentro de una comunidad sacudida por el desastre.

In Puerto Rico in 1975, fifteen-year-old Luz is the tallest in her dance academy and the only Black girl in a sea of petite, light-skinned, delicate swans. Tragically, she is seriously injured in a car accident and her brilliant, multilingual scientist parents are both killed in the crash. Now orphaned, Luz navigates the pressures of adolescence and copes with the aftershock of a brain injury, when two new friends enter her life: Ada and Shirley. Luz’s days are consumed with aches and pains, and her memory of the accident is wiped clean, but she suffers spells that send her mind to times and places she can’t share with others.

In 2017, the Bronx, Luz’s adult daughter, Marysol, wishes she better understood her. But how can she, when her mother barely remembers her own life? To help, Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela, suggests a vacation in Puerto Rico for the extended group, as an opportunity for Luz to unearth long-buried memories and for Marysol to learn more about her mother’s early life. But despite all their careful planning, two hurricanes, back-to-back, disrupt their homecoming, and a secret is revealed that blows their lives wide open. In a voice that sings with warmth, humor, friendship, and pride, Esmeralda Santiago unspools a story of women’s sexuality, shame, disability, and love within a community rocked by disaster.