ABSTRACT
Marielena was 15 when her family moved back to Puerto Rico. It was 1965, and she found it hard getting used to her new surroundings after growing up in the South Bronx. With all the romantic illusions she held about her enchanted island homeland, she felt unwelcome and sadly disappointed. She and her sister were ridiculed by the other kids at school and in the neighborhood, for the way they looked and spoke and everything about them. “What am I?” they asked themselves. “Am I really Puerto Rican the way I always thought, if here there are Puerto Ricans laughing at me and calling me gringa and treating me like a slut? Am I Americana after all, when up there I was always treated ‘different,’ and where I was even proud to be different? I was deeply confused, and felt lost.” It was the most painful experience of her life, but she did struggle through it, and made adjustments while never losing her dignity and pride in herself.
