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Judith, the writer and narrator of the essay, describes her personal experiences of discrimination as a Latina woman and the historical and sociological origins of stereotypes of Latina women. As a child, Judith immigrates from Puerto Rico to Paterson, New Jersey, where she lives in a Puerto Rican community but has friends and classmates who are white. She struggles to fit in with her white peers because of her ethnicity and cultural heritage and feels that the forms of self-expression she learns from her Puerto Rican family do not translate well to the United States. Formative experiences of feeling out of place as a child engender her frustration with stereotypes of Latina women from a young age. After becoming a successful writer, Judith feels lucky to have received an education though gender and racial discrimination follow her into her professional life. Her anger at these racist stereotypes motivates her work, as she wants to use her writing to make the real experiences of Latina women accessible to broader audiences.
Judith Ortíz Cofer Quotes in The Myth of the Latin Woman
The The Myth of the Latin Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Judith Ortíz Cofer or refer to Judith Ortíz Cofer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Myth of the Latin Woman
Quotes
Maria had followed me to London, reminding me of a prime fact of my life: you can leave the Island, master the English language, and travel as far as you can, but if you are a Latina, especially one like me who so obviously belongs to Rita Moreno’s gene pool, the Island travels with you.
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But it was painfully obvious to me that to the others, in their tailored skirts and silk blouses, we must have seemed “hopeless” and “vulgar.”
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It is custom, however, not chromosomes, that leads us to choose scarlet over pale pink.
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I do understand how things can be lost in translation. When a Puerto Rican girl dressed in her idea of what is attractive meets a man from the mainstream culture who has been trained to react to certain types of clothing as a sexual signal, a clash is likely to take place.
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[T]o him, I was just an Evita or a María: merely a character in his cartoon-populated universe.
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Since I do not wear my diplomas around my neck for all to see, I too have on occasion been sent to that “kitchen,” where some think I obviously belong.
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Every time I give a reading, I hope the stories I tell, the dreams and fears I examine in my work, can achieve some universal truth which will get my audience past the particulars of my skin color, my accent, or my clothes.
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[This poem] is a prayer for communication, and for respect. In it, Latin women pray “in Spanish to an Anglo God / with a Jewish heritage,” and they are “fervently hoping / that if not omnipotent, / at least He be bilingual.”
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Judith Ortíz Cofer Character Timeline in The Myth of the Latin Woman
The timeline below shows where the character Judith Ortíz Cofer appears in The Myth of the Latin Woman. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Myth of the Latin Woman
Judith, at the time a graduate student at Oxford University, is on a bus in England...
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As a child of Puerto Rican immigrants in urban New Jersey, Judith was raised with a strong connection to her heritage, and her parents retained much of...
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Before a Career Day event in high school, Judith struggled to decide what to wear, as she did not have any models for professional...
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...the stereotype that Latina women are sexually promiscuous. Further, they materially affect the lives of Judith’s family members and neighbors, who describe being sexually harassed in their workplaces and threatened with...
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Older Puerto Rican women often recall to Judith how, on the island, they used to dress up and parade around the city in...
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As she gains professional success, Judith still experiences instances of harassment based on stereotypes of Latina women, though less frequently than...
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Judith understands that she escapes some of the discrimination that other Latina women face because of...
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Even Judith, who has multiple diplomas, is sometimes assumed to be a culinary or service worker. She...
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