Judith Ortiz Cofer

140 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Stereotypes in latin america essay

“You can leave [Puerto Rico], master the English language, and travel as far as you can, but if you are a Latina, . . . the island travels with you,” an excerpt from the biographical essay written by Judith Ortiz Cofer is a likeness to her life as a developed, and educated Latin woman facing stereotypes in an Anglo world. By making statement Cofer is referring to her feelings of being unable to escape the stereotypes associated with her Latin heritage. The author continues by relating an island to being more like Alcatraz than a tropical paradise, by making these statements I believe that Cofer wanted us to visualize an Island which is surrounded by water and isolated, and made reference to Alcatraz so that we can acknowledge her feelings

Show More
Related

  • Judith Ortiz Cofer's Abuela Invents The Zero

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    What drives people to do things? It would be foolish to call this a simple question, but a possibility would be that the most important factor in why people choose to do something is to feel accomplished about themselves and their actions because as humans, people only do things that they believe will accomplish something good. Some might say that people can do things for no reason. However, everyone has a reason to do something, it might just be hard to find, like going on an unknown path out of curiosity, or randomly dancing for fun. Judith Ortiz Cofer's Abuela Invents

    Read More

  • Evelyn Serrano

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    People who are different and ready for a change can be scary,society is one of the first people scared. Society pushes away people who are different from the norms. This happened in a time overlooked by many people. This was the time the young lords spent in New york. Kids and teenagers banded together to make as much as a difference as possible. Many tried to make a non-violent movement and were still shot down and told to silence their movement. Many middle aged Puerto Ricans raised in the United States disagreed with the action plan of the Young Lords,they believed the young lords were just causing trouble in each city they arrived in. They refuse to allow the idea of change into their mind as well as the minds of their children. They didn’t want the fight to make things worse for Puerto Rico’s freedom.

    Read More

  • Puerto Rican Identity and Spanish Colonial Rule

    1399 Words  | 3 Pages

    The debate on Puerto Rican Identity is a hot bed of controversy, especially in today’s society where American colonialism dominates most of the island’s governmental and economic policies. The country wrestles with the strong influence of its present day colonizers, while it adamantly tries to retain aspects of the legacy of Spanish colonialism. Despite America’s presence, Puerto Ricans maintain what is arguably their own cultural identity which seems largely based on the influence of Spain mixed with customs that might have developed locally.

    Read More

  • Hard Lives in South Bronx depicted in The Boy Without a Flag

    2097 Words  | 5 Pages

    In this story, the reader can see exactly how, many Puerto Ricans feel when living on other grounds. Throughout this time, the boy that Rodriguez presents us realizes he has his culture and that he wants to preserve it as much as he can. “Because I’m Puerto Rican”. I ain’t no American. And I’m not a Yankee flag-waver”

    Read More

  • Judith Sargent Murray

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the pre-revolutionary period, more and more men worked outside the home in workshops, factories or offices. Many women stayed at home and performed domestic labor. The emerging values of nineteenth-century America, which involves the eighteenth-century, increasingly placed great emphasis upon a man's ability to earn enough wages or salary to make his wife's labor unnecessary, but this devaluation of women's labor left women searching for a new understanding of themselves. Judith Sargent Murray, who was among America's earliest writers of female equality, education, and economic independence, strongly advocated equal opportunities for women. She wrote many essays in order to empower young women in the new republic to stand up against society and make it apparent that women are equals.

    Read More

  • Judith Baca

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the late 1970's and early 80's, The Great Wall of Los Angeles was hardly a scar, but rather a vibrant rebirth of a poverished, low income neighborhood in the San Bernadino Valley. The community was united and transpired by the colorful creative collaborative work on this long mural that transended the Tujunga canal for almost a mile. Sewn from the creativity and passion for California history, muralist Judy Baca, along with other artist, and the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) began the "beautification efforts" of this otherwise run down poverished neighborhood.

    Read More

  • Spanish Colonialism and Puerto Rican Identity

    1667 Words  | 4 Pages

    In order to understand the current situation of Puerto Ricans one must look at their history and retrace the sequence of events that led to the current formation of the Puerto Rican people. An important component of this history is the time Puerto Rico spent under Spanish rule. Studying this portion of Puerto Rican history forces us to acknowledge the contribution the Spaniards, European immigrants, and African slaves had on Puerto Rican identity as we consider it today. This also addresses contemporary debates on Puerto Rican identity. An example of this is evident in an essay written by Jose Luis Gonzales entitled "Puerto Rico : Th Four Storied Country". In the article Gonzales points out what he feels is a disregard toward the African contribution to the Puerto Rican identity. He argues that the first Puerto Ricans were black , based on his interpretation that Africans were the first group to come to Puerto Rico and reproduce who did not have ties to a "motherland" because they were slaves. This is unlike the Spaniard elites and Criolles that demonstrated their commitment and loyalty to Spain. Since they had no other place to go, Puerto Rico was their motherland. Gonzalez also points out that the culture of a region is always the culture of the elite, not the popular culture.

    Read More

  • Judith Ortiz Cofer's Abuela Invents The Zero

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    Claim: When making a decision, people are often influenced by the pressure society places on them in order to follow the social norm, or what is socially accepted.

    Read More

  • Volar Judith Ortiz Cofer Summary

    1540 Words  | 4 Pages

    Imagine being a young girl dreaming of becoming a woman and flying like a super hero over your neighborhood, seeing everything that happens at night. Then, you wake up to realize you are still a young girl sleeping in your room with white “princess” furniture. This is part of the narrator’s dream in the story “Volar” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, but what exactly does this dream mean? Many details can be interpreted by analyzing the character and theme, both by using the reader response approach and the psychological approach made, mostly developed by Sigmond Freud’s theories.

    Read More

  • Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Myth Of The Latin Woman

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Consuelo left Puerto Rico believing that everything that has been pulling her down would have vanish. However, in the U.S. Consuelo would have to face new challenges such as the stereotypes, culture clashes, and mixed cultural signals. A stereotype that Consuelo has faced was that Latinas matured fast, that they’re a “Hot Tamale.” For example, when Consuelo was taken to a dance with a young male who then kisses her painfully. The young male was surprised that she didn’t respond back, he told her in an angry and irritted voice that he thought all Latin girls were supposed matured fast for their age. Another stereotype Consuelo has faced is the one the media has been portraying. “Maria, the housemaid or counter girl, is now indelibly etched into the national psyche” (MLW, 114). Because of the stereotype the media has been portraying Consuelo has been mistaken for a waitress various times. The culture clash and mixed culture signals Consuelo has confronted are the misunderstandings of the way she dresses. This is because the way Consuelo dresses can be seen sexual to men, but in reality she does not mean anything

    Read More

  • Quinceanera Judith Ortiz Cofer

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is a time when one goes from a child to a full grown adult. There’s no more barbie dolls and monster trucks; it is now all about being responsible and growing up. It seems to all happen so fast, and tables turn as faster than one might think. Now, it is all about figuring life out and changing mindset from childhood to adulthood. In the poem, “Quinceanera” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, she goes through the changes of this young lady to an adult.

    Read More

  • Colonialism in the Caribbean

    1562 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Caribbean as a Socio-Cultural Area addresses the current cultural Caribbean with an eye on the past. For example, when discussing the emergence of creole culture Mintz specifically points out that this was almost exclusive to the islands colonized by the Spanish. According to Mintz, the Hispanic Caribbean was "settled by Europeans who had come to stay and to become "creoles"; nowhere and at no time in the Hispanic islands did African slaves ever outnumber freeman of European origin" (Mintz 28). Therefore, contemporary Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba are all very culturally diverse places who all have distinctive combinations of African, Native American, and European influences. For historical reasons, different regions of these islands have developed their own local cultures and social atmospheres by virtue of the types of people who lived ther...

    Read More

  • Coca Cola and Coco Frio

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every day , Puerto Rico is slowly adapting into the American way of life and is gradually losing what is left of their culture. Perhaps this is because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States. The poem “ Coca Cola and Coco Frio” by Martin Espada is a great example of someone who encounters the Americanized culture of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is struggling to preserve their own identity.

    Read More

  • A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

    1403 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...xtent will this essay bring about a change in Antigua? The Antiguan scene can only be modified by the government choosing to run the country in a more manner that will benefit everyone associated with Antigua, especially its natives. The native’s behaviours are related to their jealousy of tourists, and of the tourist’s ability to escape their own hometown to take a vacation. While a tourist can relate to the idea that the exhaustion felt after a vacation comes from dealing with the invisible animosity in the air between the natives and themselves, having this knowledge is almost as good as not having it, because there is nothing that the tourist, or the reader, can really DO about it! If Kincaid’s purpose is solely to make tourists aware of their actions, she has succeeded. If Kincaid’s purpose is to help Antigua, she may not have succeeded to the same magnitude.

    Read More

  • A General History of the Caribbean

    2658 Words  | 6 Pages

    Perhaps nowhere is this preliminary requirement more necessary than when undertaking an historical study of the Caribbean islands. This archipelago of fifty small to moderate sized inhabited units that span a coarse 2,500 mile arc above the north side of Central and South America represent a very similar and yet very diverse group of people and cultures. Sharing a common climate, they contain a variety of terrain. Subjected to European invasion and conquest, then populated involuntarily by black African slaves under an oppressively dominating plantation system, the dissimilar timing of these very common circumstances lead to a curious variety of cultures. Conversely, the many languages spoken and the several cultural manifestations that are apparent in this region do not obliterate an essentially consistent ambience, a common rhythm that is unmistakably Caribbean. It is this contradiction, this sameness and yet difference, that makes a vigorous introductory approach such a compelling and, in itself, such a diversified component of this historical study.

    Read More

More about Judith Ortiz Cofer

Open Document