On PBS: What It’s Like to Be ‘Almost a Woman’

A spirited young Puerto Rican girl moves to Brooklyn, where “Hispanic” as a one-size-fits-all label is just one more unexpected barrier to overcome in her determined struggle to find herself, in PBS’ warm and unaffected adaptation of Esmeralda Santiago’s coming-of-age memoir, “Almost a Woman.”

This newest offering from “Masterpiece Theatre’s American Collection” airs Sunday at 8 p.m., an hour earlier than usual, to be more accessible for family viewing.

Thirteen-year-old Esmeralda, nicknamed Negi (Ana Maria Lagasca), is the oldest of seven siblings who move to a cramped New York apartment in 1961, when vibrant, strict Mami (Wanda De Jesus) leaves her unfaithful husband in Puerto Rico to find medical care for her badly injured son.

Negi goes to school, learns English and copes with her mother’s ups and downs, as well as her own adolescent anxieties, homesickness and the sadness of feeling that she doesn’t belong in either her old world or her new one.

Then Negi is accepted into a prestigious performing arts high school, a challenge that eventually defines her goal for success.

Directed by Betty Kaplan and adapted by Santiago from her novel, the earnest film is structured as a series of interconnected snapshot memories.

As such, despite its vivid creation of time and place--and De Jesus’ dominant strength and scene-stealing, astonishing sensual beauty--it’s less resonant than likable, though anchored firmly by sweet-faced Legasca’s heartfelt performance as a girl who is “casi una mujer”--almost a woman--and knows what she doesn’t want: early marriage, babies and poverty.

*

“Almost a Woman” can be seen Sunday at 8 p.m. on KCET and KVCR.