The Myth Of The Latin Woman Summary

A Latin-American author, Judith Ortiz Cofer, in her autobiographical essay, The Myth of the Latin Woman, she talks about the way men treat Latinas based on stereotypes and how she lived in America. Cofer’s purpose is to tell others about her experience as a Latina in America. She uses a bold tone to inform her readers on how Latinas and herself are treated by men and what they expect.
Cofer starts her autobiographical by acknowledging that the men in America expects Latin women to like to be flirted with.”… a young man, obviously fresh from the pub, spotted me as if struck by inspiration went down on his knees in the aisle… he broke into an Irish tenor’s rendition of “Maria” from West Side Story.”(para. 1) This man that was singing

just came from the pub and was obviously drunk. When he saw Cofer, he immediately began to serenade her.
Cofer then realized that the fashion for Latins and Americans are different from one another. ”I remember Career Day in our high school, when teachers told us to come dressed as if for a job interview… That morning I had agonized in front of my closet, trying to figure out what a “career girl” would wear… I had no models on to base my decision… the Puerto Rican girls always stood out for wearing “everything at once”. She meant, of course, too much jewelry, to many accessories.”(para. 5) Latins have fashion that stands out and attracts other’s attention with the different colors, jewelry, and accessories.
Cofer states,“ When a Puerto Rican girl dressed in her idea of what is attractive meets a man from the mainstream culture… trained to react to certain types of clothing as a sexual sign… the boy who took me to my first formal dance leaned over to plant a sloppy overeager kiss painfully on my mouth, and when I didn’t respond with sufficient passion said in resentful tone: “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early”…I was supposed to ripen, not just grow into Womanhood like other girls.”(para. 8). Cofer addresses that men expects Latinas to be more mature than the other girls.
In this autobiographical essay, Judith Ortiz Cofer, she is stating how men treats Latinas and how different Latinas are from Americans.