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Personal Narrative: The Myth Of The Latin Woman

659 Words3 Pages

In a society that’s ultimate goal is to conform it’s people, I have still managed to become an individual through mannerisms and accents, predicted failure, and stereotypes. These things have evolved me to become the individual that I am today. For most of my youth life I was embarrassed of my parents. Their mannerisms and accents were a constant struggle to explain to my friends. When asked why I couldn’t attend a sleepover I’d simply say ‘it’s hard to explain’. In addition to this, having to be a walking Google translate everywhere we went did nothing to help the case. Similarly, Tan struggled being an individual, in Mother Tongue, that wasn’t defined by her mother’s accent. This was embarrassing and frustrating to her for a long time. Instead of becoming a miserable person, Tan became an author that broke the laws of grammar and became an author that people with broken tongue could understand. Just like Tan I fought the same situation. Instead of focusing on the negative of having culturally intact parents I …show more content…

If I said I liked tacos or Mexican soap operas I’d be a walking stereotype. Stereotypes had set a barrier for me on either being accepted or accepting my culture. In The Myth of the Latin Woman, Ortiz Cofer faced a similar situation. Ortiz was stereotyped no matter she went. By simply showing her face she’d be seen as a waitress or randomly named Maria. This was a huge difficulty for Ortiz. Not only did she fear showing her culture because of the stereotypes that’d follow but she was scared to be herself. Eventually Ortiz, just like I, realized that there was nothing to be ashamed of. Stereotypes have taught me and shaped me to become an individual that loves my culture. I got over the fear of people labeling me because if they labeled me or not, it didn’t change what I loved. Stereotypes have motivated me to show my culture and my love for it but also show just what makes me

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Everyday people are judging and being judged by others with unique criteria that we, as inhabitants of Earth deem necessary checkmarks to be met to afford and be afforded tokens of civility. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman” the memoir is brimming with personal accounts of fetishiztation and discrimination the author experiences as a Latin woman that have vast influence on her life. Throughout the text Cofer conveys the significance of how deep the status “exotic” to describe Latina women is held inside the minds of people which the author alludes to on page 879, “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early,” [1] after being given a sudden, non-consensual kiss at a dance by her date. The author expresses the cultural dissonance between

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In Sandra Cisneros “Mericans” she creates a young character named Michelle who faces cultural differences and nonunderstanding, gender roles and culture stereotyping which can be exhibited in the real world. The author introduces Michelle as a foreigner with in her own culture, with this being said throughout the story Michelle seemed to be uninterested in her Grandmothers ideals and the principles of the Mexican heritage. The evidence behind this statement is; throughout the passage Michelle refers to her grandmother as being “awful” (Cisneros 93). I think a big reason for this is the fact that the grandmother has the children wait outside the church doors as she goes and say her daily prayers.

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Rhetorical Precis #4: “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan Amy Tan’s purpose in her article “Mother Tongue” is to show the influence of her mother’s style of english. She also relates this to a more broad topic of the idea that there are many different types of english that people speak that are tailored to whoever they are speaking to. She begins this piece by stating plainly that she is not an english scholar. Instead of decreasing her credibility it actually increases it and paints this piece as a more personal set of observations rather than a bland overview of the entire language.

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In today’s society the general attitude towards an individual is conform or be an outcast. It is seen in schools where people who do not fit into specific cliques become outcasts, the weird people. It is seen in the work place as well. People have conformed to standards set by society simply because society has said to do so. Society asks people to change themselves to fit in.

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The Myth Of The Latin Woman Analysis

1045 Words | 5 Pages

“The common denominator all Latinos have is that we want some respect. That 's what we 're all fighting for” - Cristina Saralegui. Judith Ortiz Cofer published the article, “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” where she expresses her anger towards stereotypes, inequality, and degradation of Latin Americans. Cofer explains the origins of these perceived views and proceeds to empower Latin American women to champion over them. Cofer establishes her credibility as a Latin American woman with personal anecdotes that emphasize her frustration of the unfair depiction of Latinos in society.

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Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Myth Of The Latin Woman

923 Words | 4 Pages

In "The Myth of the Latin Woman", Ortiz Cofer utilizes logos to speak to her audiences presence of mind, particularly by referring to cases from her life. In the story, she demonstrates to us readers that as a result of a Latina 's decision to wear "tight skirts and jingling wrist trinkets… " (Ortiz Cofer), and in addition red instead of pale pink, they are characteristically thought of as searing sex images. Ortiz Cofer gives another case of the stereotyping she encountered when she states, "I recollect the kid who took me to my first formal move hanging over to plant a messy, over-excited kiss agonizingly on my mouth; when I didn 't react with an adequate energy, he commented angrily 'I thought you Latin young ladies should develop early" ' (Ortiz Cofer). This illustration demonstrates that basically in light of the fact that she was a Latina, the kid stereotyped her and expected it is adequate to give her

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Analysis Of The Myth Of Latin Woman

1021 Words | 5 Pages

The Myth of The Latin Woman Analysis Latin American women face challenges every single day and moment of their lives. They are strongly discriminated against in all sectors of employment, in public places, and even while just walking down the street. In her essay, "The Myth of the Latin Woman," Judith Ortiz Cofer describes her own experiences using illuminating vignettes, negative connotation, and cultural allusion to exemplify how she used the struggles in her day to day life as a Latin woman to make herself stronger. Cofer uses illuminating vignettes to illustrate the different situations she encountered as a Latina while growing up and living in America.

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722 Words | 3 Pages

The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María is an essay by Judith Ortiz Cofer that addresses the impact of stereotyping on Latino women. Throughout the essay, Cofer relates her personal experiences with stereotypes to discuss how they have negatively affected her life and the lives of other Latinas. She also explains how these stereotypes originated and calls on her audience, the majority-white non-Latino population, to stop propagating the stereotypical portrayals of Latino women. In The Myth of the Latin Woman, Cofer speaks out about how stereotyping hinders the process of assimilating to a new culture by appealing to ethos through her personal experiences, using similes that show how stereotypes create isolation, and adopting

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Rhetorical Analysis Of The Myth Of The Latin Woman

965 Words | 4 Pages

The Rhetorical Analysis of “The Myth of the Latin Woman” There are many examples of incidents happened because of cultural differences. Some of them are short, single events, while other follow a person or social group for decades. Professor Judith Cortiz Cofer describes the second example in her essay The Myth of the Latin Woman that was originally published in Glamour in 1992. The author focused on the stereotypical view of Latin women from the perspective of the personal experience as a Puerto Rican girl and woman in the USA. Cofer based her essay on examples from her own life and observations of the problem in a broader sense.

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714 Words | 3 Pages

After reading Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, my perspective changed about the struggles for people who are not as good at English. All throughout this article Tan uses personal experience from her mom to show the readers the struggle while also using primary sources to back up her claim. All the evidence backs up her initial claim and as the reader your perspective changes after reading about how she personally was effected. The author 's main claim of Mother Tongue is to persuade people so respect people who struggle with English because she has serval personal connections, she has fact based proof, and she is an experienced writer on this topic and in general. All throughout the reading she uses many personal stories and personal experiences on how difficult it was for her mother to go through her everyday life.

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