“Who is Judith O.
Cofer?”
Judith
Cofer is a writer who tells us of her life through stories. She is a novelist,
poet, and an educator. We’re taken on a journey in which she tells us of her childhood
and being Puerto Rican. Mrs. Cofer exposes us to many conflicts and recurring
themes.
One of the conflicts she faced was colorism, where the
color of her skin became an issue. In Puerto Rico, her skin was considered “white”.
Her light complexion was considered beautiful. For example, “People were always
commenting within my hearing about how my black hair contrasted so nicely with
my pale skin” (pg. 136). She didn’t think much about the color of her skin, and
when she came to the United States, she was faced with another type of horror.
In America, people of color faced many challenges. In this case, Mrs. Cofer
came in contact with prejudice from others. Her “light” skin was no longer
beloved, but judged. Her first experience was when the older brother with the
dirty apron told her “’Don’t come in here unless you gonna buy something. You
PR kids put your dirty hands on stuff. You always look dirty. But maybe dirty
brown is your natural color’” (pg. 138). After this moment, she starts to feel
self-conscious of her skin color. People spoke volumes of being unaccepting
toward her skin color. For instance, she begins to experience insecurities that
have been placed by American society. Cofer becomes self-conscious when she
suffers from a bad case of chicken pox. Her “…entire body, including the
insides of my ears and in between my toes, was covered with pustules which in a
fit of panic at my appearance I scratched off my face, leaving permanent scars”
(135). Her appearance was a force to be reckoned with when hiding her face
became a security blanket. “I grew my hair long, and hid behind it for the
first years of my adolescence” (135). This quote clearly explains her need to
hide and to “…be invisible” (135), and at this time in her age, she was swimming
in insecurities. She begins to question her own beauty that was recognized as
ugly to most Americans. She says, “How was I to know that she and the others
who called me ‘pretty’ were representatives of an aesthetic that would not
apply when I went out into the mainstream world of school?” (142). Her
self-image was perceived differently at home than it was in the United States.
Lastly, she has a crisis with her own identity.
Being
in two different cultures made it difficult for her to identify with either of
them. The alienation of her skin color made her feel alone. In the midst of her
loneliness, her escapes were reading. The books she read “…contained most of
the information I needed to survive in two language and in two worlds” (pg.
133). Cofer’s rite of passage was in the words she read, and the characters in
books that always seem to stay just for her. She sought out a connection and
acceptance, which wasn’t found in real people, but fictional characters. A book
frozen in time, never moving, and she could always pick up where she left off.
During the times in which she felt the loneliness, she would “…read to escape
and also to connect: you can come back to a book as you cannot always to a
person or place you miss” (pg. 133). In her struggles for finding a connection,
there was none. Her identities were at a standstill. Through the public library
she found a spark that ignited in to a fire. A fire that helped led her way in
the midst of her lonely survival.
A recurring theme in this book is the cultural
differences that separates Cofer’s world. The societies in which she both lived
in are completely different. Their values, religions, families, and racial
backgrounds are not the same. As a Puerto Rican woman, Mrs. Cofer face many
difficulties. She was expected to act a certain way. If she acted in such an
“unlady-like” manner, there would be consequences. For example, when Cofer was
kissed by Ira, a faculty member called both their mothers. Her mother told her
“…a girl begins to look like one when she allows herself to be handled by men” (pg. 126). Like a Puerto
Rican women, Cofer was told to act like a lady and to never be promiscuous. The
thought of even being sexually curious was forbidden. For instance, a Puerto
Rican woman is deprived of sexual exploration, but her “spicy” complexion said
something else. Men will look at Latina women with hungry faces and drool
dripping from their mouths. Back home, Puerto Rican women are praised from
afar. Men were able to look, but not allowed to touch. The differences between
these two societies is that Puerto Rican men are more restrained than American
men. For example, the “…family and church structure could provide a young woman
with a circle of safety in her small pueblo on the island; if a man “wronged” a
girl, everyone would close in to save her family” (pg. 150). A woman is safe
and sound. No man can pop the bubble in which she’s protected in. Back in
America, her “dirty” skin told a different story. Even if men drooled all over
Latina women, there was still prejudice.
During this time period, Puerto Ricans and
African Americans were seen differently. There was racial injustice on both
sides of the fence. Cofer points out “I have on occasion become angry at being
treated like I’m mentally deficient by persons who made that prejudgment upon
hearing an unfamiliar accent” (pg. 133). Cofer also suffered from being
tormented by her African American peers. With her hunger to read every book in
sight, Cofer became a target. At the time she didn’t understand why Lorraine
would bully her. Cofer became a perfect target for Lorraine to ridicule her,
“…the skinny Puerto Rican whose father was away most with the navy most of the
time and whose mother did not speak English: I was the perfect choice” (pg.
131). Cofer knew that Lorraine’s anger harbored resentment because of their
totally different racial identities. It was before she “…internalized the awful
reality of the struggles for territory that underscored the lives of blacks and
Puerto Ricans in Paterson…” (pg. 132). There was a reason for Lorraine’s blind
hatred. Racism played a heavy roll on African Americans. It affected Puerto
Ricans as well, but not as harshly African Americans. The color of Cofer’s skin
played a significant roll growing up. Throughout her childhood and adolescence,
Cofer also faced the iron fist of racism.
Judith O. Cofer wants us to self-reflect on our past
experiences and relate them back to her childhood. She is an educator who
reveals the true nature of the challenges she faced as a child and a teenager.
How do we see the world through our own eyes? How will we face the challenges
that lie ahead?
Work Citation
Cofer Ortiz, Judith. The Latin Deli. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1993. Print
Cofer Ortiz, Judith. The Latin Deli. New York, London: W.W Norton & Company, Inc, W. W. Norton & Company Ltd, 1995. Print
