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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