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The Myth Of The Latin Woman Summary

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Stereotyping is a very unfortunate occurrence that happens every day in our lives. In the short story, “The Myth of the Latin Woman” Judith Ortiz Cofer talks about her experiences of being stereotyped for being of Latin decent and how she responded to them. Cofer shows us examples of being stereotyped by telling stories of what people said to her or how they acted around her. I noticed use of the rhetorical devices logos and pathos in this text along with the use of imagery to be very helpful in explaining her experiences and the point she is trying to get across to the reader. In this story, Cofer is mainly targeting Latin women. However, this story can apply to anyone with a strong racial heritage that mainstream people may find odd or out of the norm. Her purpose in this text is to show that just because someone may act or dress different doesn’t mean that its ok to expect them to act a certain way or to pick on them for being different. However, some of these things are not intentional as Cofer explained by stating “as I walked in with my notebook in my hand. An older woman motioned me to her table. Thinking that she wanted me to autograph a copy of my brand-new slender volume of verse, I went over. She ordered a cup of coffee from me, assuming that I was the waitress” (631) Things like this are obviously unintentional, but none the …show more content…

Something that really made me feel this when is when Cofer stated “I felt humiliated when I appeared at an American friend’s party wearing a dress more suitable to a semiformal than a playroom birthday celebration” (628) This had to have been more than embarrassing for her and I’m sure made her feel very uncomfortable around her friends. The atmosphere of this story is definitely serious. Throughout this text it remained this way due to the fact that she is trying to get a serious point across to the

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