When I Was Puerto Rican: 11. Angels on the Ceiling Summary & Analysis

Mami admires the airplane stewardesses and suggests that Negi might want to be a stewardess one day and travel the world for free. Negi thinks that she'd like to go places where she can't pronounce anything, and asks Mami if planes ever fall from the sky. A woman in front of Mami tells Negi that talking like that is bad luck. The stewardesses bring dinner and after she eats, Negi falls in and out of sleep.

In Brooklyn, Negi's plane lands. Mami gathers her children and they join the exiting passengers. Mami points them towards a tall woman in the terminal, whom Negi learns is Tata. Raymond runs to her, and Mami introduces Edna and Negi. Mami introduces the man with Tata, Don Julio, as Tata's friend. Mami collects her baggage, and Don Julio tries to hail a taxi. Several drivers turn down the group, which Don Julio says is technically illegal.

Don Julio finally gets a taxi. The driver doesn't speak Spanish and keeps asking questions in English. Mami tells him they're from Puerto Rico, and the driver begins a long speech that Negi doesn't understand. Negi presses her face to the window and looks out while Tata and Mami tease her. Negi thought New York was going to be clean and lively, but finds that the streets are dark and empty.

They arrive at a brick building and unload their belongings. Tata leads them into a hallway and into a small room. She introduces Negi to Chico, her brother. He met Negi when she was a child, but she doesn't remember him. He smells of beer. Don Julio and Chico unload Mami's belongings while Tata opens a beer and gets Negi something to eat. Don Julio and Chico return and tell Negi about Mami's apartment upstairs, her school, and the marketplace down the street. Negi is excited and afraid.

Negi describes waking up in their apartment on her first morning in Brooklyn. The ceiling is decorated with cherubs, and the building is the nicest Negi has ever lived in. Later, Mami takes Negi with her to the market. When Negi stares at two Jewish men in the street, Mami tells her not to. Most of the vendors in the market are Jewish too, though they speak Spanish. Mami barters for everything, and it takes them most of the day to buy half the things they need. They do the same thing the next day and buy Negi school clothes and a coat. Tata describes how cold the winters are and tells Mami how good Raymond and Edna were while Mami was at the market: they spent the day in front of the television eating chocolate.

Mami takes Negi to Williamsburg. Negi wonders what "kosher" means, and Mami buys Negi pizza. She tells her that the Italians are more like the Puerto Ricans than the Jewish people are, and tells Negi about the morenos: black Americans. Mami says the morenos don't like Puerto Ricans because they think they're taking all the jobs, but Mami insists that there's enough work for everyone.

Mami takes Negi to school on her first day. Negi has her report card and Mami has Negi's birth certificate. They fill out forms and Mr. Grant writes on the top that Negi will go into seventh grade. Negi asks Mr. Grant about this and insists she belongs in eighth grade. Mami is suspicious about Negi's backtalk, but Negi tells Mami that she's not stupid and won't go back to seventh grade. Negi negotiates a deal with Mr. Grant that says that if she learns English by Christmas, she can stay in eighth grade.

Mami is impressed with Negi. Negi proudly tells Mami that she can walk home from school by herself later, but is nervous as she leaves Mami in the school hallway. Negi is placed in Miss Brown's class, which she quickly learns is the class for students with learning disabilities and is possibly the equivalent of sixth or seventh grade. Unlike her classmates, Negi desperately wants to learn, and she loves the way Miss Brown teaches.

Negi's school is huge and loud, with a confusing social structure. There are Americanos, who are the smart kids; the Italian students who dress provocatively and smoke; and the black girls (morenas) who wear short skirts and heavy boots. The fights between the different groups are brutal, and Negi avoids any involvement. There are two kinds of Puerto Rican students as well: those who were born in America and those who arrived recently. Negi feels disloyal for wanting to learn English and wanting to look like the Italians or the morenas, and she doesn't feel comfortable with either group of Puerto Ricans either.

Negi comes home from school one day to find Mami packed and waiting. Tata helps Mami and Negi load their things into a cab to move to a larger apartment, as Negi's remaining siblings are going to come to New York. The new apartment is across the projects, and Tata is going to live with them. The children arrive in October. Negi notices that Delsa, whom Papi had put in charge, looks like a tired adult woman.

The children are all sent back a grade in school to learn English, so Negi is the only one attending junior high. She disobeys Mami once and cuts across the projects to get there and doesn't understand all the graffiti. When she tries out bad words at home, Mami scolds her.

One day, Negi asks Mami for a bra. Mami laughs and says she can have one when she's señorita. A few weeks later, Negi tells Mami that she started her period. Mami is disappointed that Negi already had a class in school that taught her how to handle it, but shows her where she keeps her Kotex hidden. Mami tells Tata and they celebrate. The next day, Mami brings Negi white bras from the factory where she works.

While Mami works in Manhattan, Tata watches the children after school. Tata begins drinking wine or beer early in the day, though she still cooks supper and makes the children eat. When it gets colder, Tata begins lighting the oven and leaving the door open. One evening, Negi tells a story as she sits by the oven with her siblings, Tata, Mami, and Don Julio. It's fantastical and absurd, and when she's done, the children demand another. Don Julio offers Negi a dime to tell another, and Mami starts some hot chocolate. Every night that winter, Negi tells her family stories that star characters named after her siblings.

After school, Negi goes to the library and checks out children's books to teach herself to read. She soon moves from picture books to chapter books. By her fourth month in Brooklyn, Negi has learned enough English to score well on her school tests. In January, Mr. Grant calls Negi's name during an assembly to announce the students who did particularly well on their midterms.

Mami falls in love with Francisco, a younger man who lives across the street. He buys Mami flowers and brings the children candy, but Tata doesn't like him. Mami visits Francisco nightly and always comes home happy. One night, when Tata and Don Julio had spent the afternoon drinking, Francisco comes to visit. When Tata sees Francisco, she starts insulting him. Mami shows Francisco out and ignores her distraught mother. Tata continues to berate Mami for not setting a good example, and a week later, Mami moves her children to an apartment down the street. Francisco comes to live with them.

Marilyn Monroe kills herself that summer. One day Negi sits at her window, watching the activity at the soft drink warehouse across the street and listening to the radio talk about Marilyn. A truck pulls up across the street. The driver waves at Negi and when she looks, he begins masturbating openly. Wide-eyed, Negi watches for a while and then moves away, but soon returns to the window. The man starts masturbating again and smiles at her. Negi is confused: she hadn't acted provocatively, dressed up, or even smiled, but now she understands why Mami always tells her to pretend she isn't interested when people approach her.

Negi thinks that she's grown up knowing that men want one thing, and it's up to Negi to give it to them. She thinks that what happened with the truck driver happened even though she didn't mean to give him anything. Negi goes to find Mami, who asks Negi what's wrong. Negi doesn't tell Mami what happened but feels like it was her fault. She goes back to the window and openly watches the man, simultaneously scared, curious, and embarrassed. Negi suddenly smiles at the man, who looks immediately suspicious, stops masturbating, and ignores Negi. Negi thinks he stopped because she'd been too willing to play along.