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Summary Of Myth Of The Latin Woman

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Judith Ortiz Cofer explains her personal experiences of dealing with stereotypes in her short story, “The Myth of the Latin Woman”. She starts off with a story of an Irish man who sang to her. He sang a song that she knew, but he had changed the lyrics to make them uncomfortable for her. She proceeds on by saying that this is not uncommon for Latin women. Puerto Rican women, such as herself, are often victims of stereotypes and racism. Judith says that she can even remember being stereotyped early in her childhood. As a child, she dressed differently from her peers, and this did not help her situation. Judith tells another story of when a drunk man sang crude and inappropriate lyrics at her. Sadly, she has plenty of stories of her being stereotyped. Through it all, however, she continues to rise above. Judith has a lot of different emotions showing in this story, but I think her purpose is to raise awareness for how Hispanics are treated and what they have to overcome to be successful. …show more content…

While she realizes that she is not white, she was born in America. She and other “minorities” don’t deserve the racial prejudice that is constantly thrown at them. Judith tells a few stories in the essay of when she was treated unfairly simply because of the color of her skin. From men saying obnoxious things at her to being assumed as a waitress, Judith has been through quite a bit of stereotyping. I believe she wants us to think about how it is grossly unfair to all ethnic groups, not just Latinas, to just assume and stereotype them because of how they look. Unfortunately, though, that’s the way it seems to be in America right now. I think Judith is trying to change

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She employs many literary devices that support her specific claim in this passage as well as she provides many clear examples of how stereotypes have shaped young girls’ lives throughout the book. Through these examples she succeeds to use them as evidence so the audience does not conform to

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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 Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Changeling”, the hardships of gender stereotypes are exposed. The contrast between a young girl’s imagination and the reality of her gender role is clear by her attempt to appease her parents. She is neither manly enough to gain the attention of her father nor womanly enough to attain the respect of her mother. Her dilemma of not being able to fit in is emphasized by Cofer’s use of imagery and repetition.

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