Judith Ortiz Cofer Poetry

Judith Ortiz Cofer was an American author who passed away in 2016. Throughout her career, she wrote poetry, short stories, an autobiography, essays, and fiction for young adults. She is best known for A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood.

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Quinceañera

‘Quinceañera’ appears in Judith Ortiz Cofer’s Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (1991). This coming-of-age poem is about a speaker’s physical and mental changes.

Judith Ortiz Cofer's poetry, including 'Quinceañera,' focuses on personal experiences related to identity, family, and growing up. This poem talks about the feelings and changes a girl goes through when she becomes a woman. Cofer expresses how the girl feels trapped between her changing body and what society expects from her, creating a deep connection with the reader through these relatable struggles.

My dolls have been put away like dead
children in a chest I will carry
with me when I marry.
I reach under my skirt to feel

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