In the essay “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, she portrays the stereotypes hardships which are faced by Latin women. She wants the audience to know how the stereotypes can cause distress. Stereotypes can make people to think about certain group of people in a certain way. She gives example in her essay to show how stereotypes can affect a person’s life. She tells the audience about how Latin girls are grown in the Latin culture, and how the Latin girls have to portray themselves in the society. She wants the readers to understand the struggle that the Latin women have to face, as the stereotypes causes people to believe that Latin women are usually waitresses. Cofer wants to show …show more content…
Cofer wants to portray the way Latin women are nurtured to help the audience understand the hardship of Latin women. Latin women have to follow their culture, and they have to look mature. Cofer mentions, “As a teenager I was lectured constantly on how to behave as a proper senorita… the Puerto Rican mothers also encouraged their daughters to look and act like women and to dress in clothes our Anglo friends and their mothers found too “mature” and flashy.” (233). Latin women are required to have certain appearance, and they have to dress in a certain way. Latin women also need to act and behave like a grown up women. Latin women are required to dress maturely and are viewed as normal dressing in Latin culture. Cofer uses her childhood experience to show to the reader that Latin women are taught to dress as grown up since their childhood. She wants to show that stereotypes about the way Latin women dress leads people to view Latin women as sexual innuendo. Cofer wants to show to