Judith Ortiz Cofer Essay

Judith Ortiz Cofer is the writer of the short story “American History”. She was born in 1952 in the town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. In 1956, Judith and her family moved to the United States and settled in Paterson, New Jersey. However, she dispites the distance and spent portions of her childhood traveled back and forth between Hormingueros and Paterson. This movement between her two cultures became a vital part of her poetry and fiction. In 1962, Judith Ortiz Cofer and her family moved to Augusta, Georgia. She then attended college there and received an undergraduate degree in English from Augusta College (now Augusta State University). Few years later, she moved to Florida and received an M.A from Florida Atlantic University. When she was nineteenth, Judith married Charles John Cofer, who is a businessman. They later gave birth to a …show more content…
She then became Regent and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing. Her first major work of prose fiction was: “The Line of the Sun” and it was published in 1980, There are also other work from her that were famous, such as: “The Year of Our Revolution”, “Riding Low on the Streets of Gold”. Throughout her career, Judith has achieved a lot of awards contributing to her range of literacy genres such as: short stories, poetry, poems, essays,...Those awards includes : “Riverstone International Chapbook Competition” in 1986, first Hispanic to win the O.Henry Prize for the story “The Latin Deli”, and many more. However, one of her impeccable work is the short story, “American History” that touched me the most. The story was written about a poor, teenage girl, who adapting into the new lifestyle in New Jersey. However, life is tough even for just a teenage girl. The world is segregated among us. Throughout the story, Judith done an amazing job to illustrates her ideas of racism and segregation that stresses upon the young