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The Myth Of The Latin Woman Analysis

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Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” is about the racist stereotypes that she has encountered in her life. Cofer is known for the publishing of three collections of poetry, four essay collections, four novels, and short story collections. Cofer is currently “Regents’ and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia” (230). In this essay Cofer often experiences being stereotyped based off her beauty and ethnic background. Cofer is a beautiful Hispanic woman “who so obviously belongs to Rita Moreno’s gene pool” (231), as she stated in the beginning of the essay. Cofer begins the essay by relating an experience where a drunk man started singing "Maria”, from "Westside Story” (231) to her, while she is on a bus trip to London from Oxford. Cofer tries to keep her cool even though everyone around her finds it entertaining. Cofer states “I managed my version of an English smile: no show of teeth, no extreme contortions of facial muscles. . .” (231). At this moment, Cofer is aggravated by the actions of the drunk man but tries to keep her composure. Cofer feels that just because she is beautiful that does not …show more content…
The media has given Hispanic woman the name “hot tamale” (232) and given them the imagine of a “sexual firebrand” (232). Cofer comments about a time when she went to her first formal dance and how a young boy made the comment “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early” (233). Men look to Latin women as just hook ups. The author experiences something like this again when a man calls her “Evita” (233) and sings “Don’t Cry for me Argentina” (233) in a fancy hotel. Once the man has finished his offensive song Cofer again keeps her cool by calmly walking away. She felt as if she was “just an Evita or a Maria: merely a character in his cartoon universe”

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