Silent Dancing by Judith Ortiz Cofer
"Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood" by Judith Ortiz Cofer is a reflective collection comprising fourteen essays and accompanying poems that explore the author's upbringing in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, and Paterson, New Jersey. The narrative is shaped by Ortiz Cofer's experiences of cultural transition and familial dynamics, particularly influenced by her father's military service and her mother's connection to their Puerto Rican heritage. Central to the work is the tension between traditional expectations of Puerto Rican womanhood and the author's quest for individual identity.
Key themes include the significance of familial stories and the role of women as cultural bearers, highlighted through the figure of the grandmother, Mamá, who embodies both tradition and the possibility of redefining one's life script. The essays delve into pivotal moments such as the quinceañera, a coming-of-age celebration, and the bittersweet memories of annual trips to Puerto Rico. Through her poignant storytelling, Ortiz Cofer not only honors her heritage but also reclaims her narrative, offering insight into the complexities of cultural identity and the journey of an artist seeking to redefine what it means to be a Puerto Rican woman.
Silent Dancing by Judith Ortiz Cofer
First published: 1990
The Work
Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood is Judith Ortiz Cofer’s collection of fourteen essays and accompanying poems looking back on her childhood and adolescence in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, and Paterson, New Jersey. Her father joined the Navy before she was born, and two years later he moved them to Paterson, where he was stationed. When he went to sea for months at a time, he sent his wife and children back to Puerto Rico until he returned to New Jersey.
While her father urged the family to assimilate into the American melting pot and even moved them outside the Puerto Rican neighborhoods in New Jersey, her mother remained loyal to her own mother’s home on the island. Her mother’s quiet sadness emerges throughout the book, such as the voice of the poem “El Olvido” that warns that to forget one’s heritage is to “die/ of loneliness and exposure.”
The memoir chronicles significant moments, beginning with her birth (“They Say”). “Quinceañera” tells of the custom of a girl’s coming-of-age party (at age fifteen). Her grandmother prepares her for Puerto Rican womanhood. The adult narrator also explores her and her mother’s memories of the yearly trips to Puerto Rico in “Marina” and “The Last Word.”
The central theme in the book is the traditional Puerto Rican “script of our lives,” which circumscribes “everyone in their places.” The narrator struggles with her family’s expectations for her to become a traditional Puerto Rican woman: domestic, married, and fertile. This script allows little room for individual identity, so the maturing narrator focuses on those characters who rewrite the script and extemporize their own lives (“Some of the Characters”).
The embodiment of Puerto Rican tradition is Mamá, the grandmother who ironically gives Ortiz Cofer the tools that enable her to redefine her own role. In “More Room,” for instance, Ortiz Cofer tells the story about Mamá expelling her husband from her bedroom to avoid giving birth to even more children, thus liberating herself to enjoy her children, her grandchildren, and her own life. Similarly, “Tales Told Under the Mango Tree” portrays Mamá’s queenly role as the matriarchal storyteller surrounded by the young women and girls of the family as she passes on cuentos (stories) about being a Puerto Rican woman, such as the legend of the wise and courageous María Sabida who is not controlled by love and is “never a victim.”
Silent Dancing is ultimately a Künstlerroman, the story of an artist’s apprenticeship. Ortiz Cofer has revised the script for her life as a Puerto Rican woman by inheriting Mamá’s role as storyteller; she redefines what it means to be a Puerto Rican woman and tells her stories to a wider audience.
Bibliography
Hampl, Patricia. A Romantic Education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. This recollection of a Minnesotan girlhood and adulthood offers interesting comparisons with Ortiz Cofer’s memoir. Hampl journeys into the past and to Czechoslovakia in an attempt to forge roots. A beautiful memoir.
Hasselstrom, Linda. Land Circle: Writings Collected from the Land. Golden, Colo.: Fulcrum, 1991. This memoir, like Silent Dancing, interestingly combines poetry with essays. Hasselstrom mourns the death of her husband and describes her adventure in learning to live self-sufficiently on a cattle ranch in South Dakota.
Mohr, Nicholasa. Nilda. New York: Harper and Row, 1973. In her first novel, Mohr portrays life in New York’s Puerto Rican barrio. This is a candid portrayal of a Puerto Rican girl as she grows from a child to a teenager, learning to deal with racism and poverty.
Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. Rodriguez’s work offers an interesting parallel with Ortiz Cofer’s. Rodriguez’s memoir describes the coming-of-age of a Chicano intellectual. His work presents very poi-gnantly the pains of losing closeness with his immediate family because of his assimilation into Anglo-American culture. Unlike Ortiz Cofer, Rodriguez writes directly about political issues such as affirmative action.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Reprint. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovano-vich, 1991. Ortiz Cofer traces her origins, in many ways, to this collection of essays. A must for anyone interested in women’s writing.