When I Was Puerto Rican

Esmeralda’s father. He is usually presented as having good intentions. However, he is unreliable and often selfish. Despite giving Mami seven children, he refuses to marry her, eventually letting her take the children to New York rather than marry her. After his children move to New York, Esmeralda learns that he has remarried. She says that he is dead to her, but Mami says that the children must never forget him. Papi is not shown to have many redeemable qualities beyond an occasional willingness to provide for and entertain the children during his irregular visits. 

Mami loves her children, but is often harsh and occasionally abusive. She is responsible for many of the ideas Esmeralda forms about women, but they are not always positive. Esmeralda sees many things about her mother that she does not want to emulate. In many ways, she wants to be the kind of woman her mother is not. By the end of the book, Mami has become a mouthpiece for the idea of the American Dream. She teaches her children that hard work is all that is needed to succeed. However, she remains insecure in many ways. 

Lola’s son.  He is a wild boy who tries to talk Esmeralda into crude sexual games. When he grabs her inappropriately, she kicks him and runs. Tato is her first personal introduction into the sinister side of male lust. Esmeralda describes him as not being afraid of anything, a trait that is exhilarating until he also shows that he is unafraid to force himself on her. 

Esmeralda’s little brother. He hurts his foot during a bicycle accident and faces possible amputation. Esmeralda always feels responsible for his accident. He is a symbol of her guilt. 

Jenny is a spoiled cousin who is indulged in all things. It is her new bike that Raymond is riding when he hurts his foot. Jenny is one of the few characters in the book presented as having more than enough resources. 

Rita is a friend of a neighbor. She wears tight dresses and low-cut blouses. She is beloved by the men in the neighborhood. Mami refers to her as a “terrible woman” who is a bad example for all the female children. She also goes out partying while neglecting her children, which will matter more to Esmeralda as she experiences the neglect of her own father. Whenever Esmeralda imagines the word puta and what putas are like, Rita is who she imagines. 

A neighbor. Gloria gives Esmeralda advice about men, sex, and the menstrual cycle. She is a fount of information about all kinds of things that Mami would not want Esmeralda talking about. 

One of Esmeralda’s schoolteachers. She is oddly combative with Esmeralda. She calls on her hoping she won’t know the answer to a question, then acts disappointed when she does know. She is a symbol of how a bad educator can be worse than no educator at all. Few people have the ability to squash a child’s enthusiasm for learning like a bad teacher. 

A preacher with a deep voice who whips a church crowd into a frenzy of repentance. Esmeralda cannot believe the power that his words have over people who are normally sedate and calm. He makes her want to give herself over to the faith and experience the same fervor as his congregation, but not even he is able to take away her fear. 

The principal of Esmeralda’s school and her short-lived piano teacher. When she catches him looking down her dress during a lesson, she calls him a filthy old man and tells her parents. Mami confronts Don Luis, who then avoids Esmeralda at school for the rest of the year. 

Esmeralda’s uncle in New York. He is friendly, but soon starts paying too much attention to her. He makes sexual advances on Esmeralda, offering to pay her if she’ll open her shirt, pinching her nipple, and forcing her not to tell anyone. Chico represents the ultimate disillusionment of Esmeralda’s transition into adulthood. If a woman cannot be safe from the men in her family, where can she feel safe?