My Personal Opinion

     In the 8th essay "And Are You a Latina Writer?" in the novel Woman in Front of the Sun On Becoming a Writer by Judith Ortiz Cofer, I learned how to stay true to yourself till the very end. The whole essay is about how she shifts from one heritage to another, and how happy she is to have both. It's really easy to lose yourself or your sense of identity, at any age or any profession. People forget who they are and where they come from all the time, and it's refreshing to me knowing she never did.


     The part I liked the most was when she said she belonged to both her Puerto Rican and American heritages. It showed me she was really proud of both and not ashamed of one or the other. My least favorite part of the essay was the critism people gave her about being a Puerto Rican American Writer. I disliked it because they thought she was ashamed of her Puerto Rican heritage by not writing her stories in Spanish, but if they took the time to read her memoir Woman in Front of the Sun On Becoming a Writer they'd see she shares her heritage with us by using Spanish words at differnent points of her novel. What bored me in the essay was her poem titled "Claims" about her Grandmother. It bored me because it had no sense of direction to me. I don't think that was the appropriate place to place the poem, and it didn't make any sense to me. My very favorite part was how she knows herself and stays true to herself through and through. She never tries to be someone she isn't in her memoir, and that shows the type of woman she is.


     Two of my goals in life are to never change, and never forget my heritage. I don't want to be like those celebrities who forget who they are and their purpose in life each and every day. I want to be different. I want to embrace my culture and who I am, because those are two things that make me the person I am today. While teengaers my age find role models in celebrities who forget who they are, and try acting so cool all the time. My role model is someone real, someone who I can relate too. My role model is Judith Cofer.