Esmeralda Santiago is a Puerto Rican author, actress and small business owner.
Background
Esmeralda Santiago was born on May 17, 1948, in San Juan. She was the daughter of Pablo Santiago Diaz and Ramona Santiago.
The oldest of eleven children, Esmeralda Santiago moved with her mother and siblings to New York City from Puerto Rico during her adolescence.
Education
Santiago attended junior high school in Brooklyn, then went on to the Performing Arts High School in New York City, where she majored in drama and dance. Santiago studied film production at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude in 1976. She has also earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College, and she holds honorary doctoral degrees from Trinity University (Texas), Pace University, Metropolitan College of New York, and the University of Puerto Rico, Recinto Mayagüez.
Shortly after graduation from Harvard, Santiago married Frank Cantor, with whom she founded Cantomedia, a film and media production company. Indeed, it is from her work as a documentary film writer that her career as an essayist and novelist has evolved.
Critics of Santiago's work often praise her moving portraits of the Puerto Rican immigrant experience, which are peppered with Spanish in order to more accurately depict the bilingual and bicultural realities of her community.
As of the early 2000s, Santiago lives with her husband in Westchester County, New York, where she continues to translate her life story into print and film, contributing a powerful voice and commentary on the immigrant experience in the United States.
Quotations:
“I learned you pay for your happiness. That's why I don't expect to be happy all the time. I'd rather be surprised by one moment every so often to remind me that joy is possible, even if I have to pay for it later.”
“How can you know what you're capable of if you don't embrace the unknown?”
“For me, the person I was becoming when we left was erased, and another one was created.”
Membership
Santiago is a member of the Association for Latin Americans in Communications, National Network of Hispanic Women, National Conference of Puerto Rican Women, Women in Film and Video, East Region Writer’s Guild of America, New England Minority Purchasing Council, Norfolk County Human Rights Council, Harvard Club, Radcliffe Club.
Interests
Dance, theater, music.
Connections
On June 11, 1978, Santiago married Frank Cantor. They have two children, Lucas David and Ila.