English 10B/ When I Was Puerto Rican Study Questions

Directions: CArefulyl finish up reading of The American Invasion of Macun. Please answer the following dsicussion questions: Up to page 83 1. Make a list to summarize all the "generous" actions the American government had done in this time period to help the Puerto Rican people. 2. Explain the irony of the foods suggested by the American government. 3. Esmeralda ate something that made her stomach upset and she threw up. What happened to her? 4. Can you interpret Esmeralda's throwing up of food in a symbolic way? In other words, what really made her sick and what was she rejecting? 5. Discuss the importance of the parcels sent to the Esmeralda family from Tata, her grandmother, in New York. How did these presents affect Esmeralda's mind? 6. Esmeralda introduced a long list of attractive material things that she was exposed to in this chapter, e.g. tooth brush, tooth paste, American groceries, etc. Early in the book, she described the poor living conditions in her native village. Such a juxtaposition of events and items serves a special function. Discuss her writing technique and explain why she wrote the chapters that way.