Autobiography in self-translation: language towards experience in Esmeralda Santiago’s Cuando era puertorriqueña

This article examines how the dual status of the self-translated text – both ‘original’ and ‘translation’ – provides a privileged vantage point for studying referentiality in autobiographical narrations. Starting with a brief discussion on the notion of referentiality in autobiography, and on the peculiarities of self-translation, I then focus on a text that is both self-translated and autobiographical: Esmeralda Santiago’s Cuando era puertorriqueña, the Spanish version of When I Was Puerto Rican. Following an introductory analysis of Santiago’s self-translating practice, I analyse translingual passages centred on reader-response criticism. The fact that the self-translated version, Cuando era puertorriqueña, transfers ‘back’ into Spanish events experienced in that language but first written about in English plays an important role in how the self-translation embeds itself in the target language and culture, and on how referentiality is perceived. My conclusions suggest that autobiographical narration and life experience are closer to each other in Cuando era puertorriqueña than in When I Was Puerto Rican. Since the self-translated text is more directly referential than its source was, the link between autobiography and life is strengthened.