Since she was a young girl, Judith Ortiz Cofer has admired the women in her life for being such great storytellers, which influenced her to display her battles of immigration to the United States at a young age and her experiences growing up as a Latina-American being raised in New Jersey through her poetry and short stories; Ortiz Cofer's work is also inspired by the Latino-immigrant community who share the struggles she once faced and is still confronted by.
Judith Ortiz Cofer was born on February 24, 1952, in the small town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. When she was only four years old, Ortiz Cofer and her family immigrated to Paterson, New Jersey, where they resided for the next eleven years; Cofer and her family frequently visited their …show more content…
However, the essay mainly goes in depth with details of her experience being fostered into a community in New Jersey diversely occupied with other Spanish natives, and her family's reaction to such drastic shift in régime. Amongst her interpretation of the transition to life in the United States, she incorporates a depiction of a silent film she created, which illustrates an assembly of other Spanish natives she comes across at a get-together in her home. The film concludes with a five-minute episode of the visitors dancing in complete silence, unveiling a sense of serenity Ortiz Cofer feels whenever there is a lack of speech in this part of her apologue. Whenever there is a conversation in the essay, it tends to be of spiteful topics. Ortiz Cofer writes of one of her aunts and her father's uncle, who are the sole two people she goes in depth when describing their speaking. She portrays her dad's uncle as a withering alcoholic and he is deteriorating because of his drinking problem. She continues to describe a dream she has about the uncle also dancing silently, but recesses and approaches her to speak with her; she then refuses to converse with him telling him she doesn't want to hear what he has to say. Her aunt then …show more content…
One topic, which may cause confusion, pertains to when Ortiz Cofer actually started to write professionally. After extensive research, one may find when she was working on her graduate degree. She was writing her thesis paper when she realized she began using strong words. This engaged a craving for writing in her composing the thesis did not necessarily quench; this is when she began jotting down ideas for her stories. Having answered this question, many would question which genre is the most difficult for her to write. Ortiz Cofer finds, although the blank page is the most difficult aspect of writing, she believes poetry is the more demanding genre to compose. Finally, a question which may leave her readers curious about is whether Judith Ortiz Cofer considers herself a poet over being a storyteller, and the conclusion one may come across is she thinks of her narrative skills to be linear, although she believes poetry gives her a sense of power in terms of working with words freely without having to follow specific