When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

Author:Esmeralda Santiago
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780786736867
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2010-05-03T10:00:00+00:00

Mami talked to Doña Andrea. She smiled and nodded her head and smiled again. When Doña Andrea handed her a pot full of chickpeas with pig’s feet, Mami didn’t want to accept it.

“Come on,” Doña Andrea said, “I cooked them for you. You don’t have the time to make them after work.”

“All right, but only if you let me make you some arroz con dulce one of these days.”

“Don’t worry about it. Enjoy it.” And she pressed the pot into Mami’s hands.

Chickpeas with pig’s feet and white rice was one of my favorite dishes. Mami put pumpkin in the chickpeas, and I munched into it, expecting it to be hard and chewy but discovered that it melted in my mouth. I gnawed on the meat around the pig’s feet and sucked the bones until the salty, slippery membrane slid out and swished around my tongue. As we ate, we threw the bones out the window, plink, into the water.

At dusk I could see the remains of other people’s suppers floating by the window, chicken and pork chop bones, lettuce leaves, breadcrumbs, sometimes noodles. On Fridays people ate fish or vegetables with no meat because of God.

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