When I Was Puerto Rican: Epilogue Summary & Analysis

A decade after Negi graduated from the Performing Arts High School, she returns to visit her mentor, one of the women who conducted her audition. Negi's mentor smiles and remembers Negi's audition out loud, saying that they asked Negi to leave so they could laugh at the absurdity of a 14-year-old Puerto Rican girl reciting an incomprehensible monologue about a possessive mother-in-law. She tells Negi that they admired her courage.

Negi is now a scholarship student at Harvard. She tells her mentor that she's the only one of her siblings at school, and says Mami had 11 children by the time Negi graduated. Her mentor asks Negi if she ever thinks about how far she's come, and Negi replies that she fears it'll jinx her luck to think about it.

Negi's mentor tells Negi a story: on Negi's first day at Performing Arts, she was absent and the school called her house. Negi had told them that she had nothing to wear, and they asked to speak to Mami. Negi, in tears, interpreted for Mami that Negi had to go to the welfare office to translate. The mentor assured Negi that several students at the school received public assistance, and Negi came to school the next day. Negi tells her mentor that she's glad she made the phone call.

Negi's mentor says she has to teach a class, hugs Negi, and tells her to take care. Negi watches her walk away and wanders through the hallways of the school. She finds the bulletin board of successful students and studies it. She says "one of these days" to herself.