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Judith Ortiz CoferA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Though Judith Ortiz Cofer lived in the United States from the age of two through to her death at the age of sixty-two, she wrote extensively about her experience and identity as a Latina woman and writer. For Cofer, her Puerto Rican cultural identity was integral to her understanding of language, as she spoke Spanish from an early age and described Spanish as the language of her home. In an interview with Rafael Ocasio that appeared in the Kenyon Review (see: Further Resources), she explains that, for her, Spanish was never “replaced by English,” but that she “added English” to her modes of communication. Because she received an education in English, it became the language of her writer self, but she maintained an intimacy with the Spanish language throughout her life.
As a child, Cofer traveled frequently between Paterson, New Jersey and Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, spending months at a time with her mother and their relatives on the island whenever her father, who was in the Navy, had to travel to Europe for work. Though the frequent moves between countries and households were disruptive to Cofer’s childhood, her time in Puerto Rico enabled her Puerto Rican identity to develop and coalesce.
By Judith Ortiz Cofer
American History
Judith Ortiz Cofer
An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio
Judith Ortiz Cofer
Call Me Maria
Judith Ortiz Cofer
Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance Of A Puerto Rican Childhood
Judith Ortiz Cofer
The Meaning of Consuelo
Judith Ortiz Cofer