Judith Ortiz Cofer (1952-2016) was born in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, an iconic town on the island’s western coast. Judith was the first child of a young couple struggling with finances. Shortly before his daughter’s birth and, like many young men from small towns, unable to find a steady job in Hormigueros, her father was pressured to join the US Navy. When she was two years old, the family, including her infant brother, moved to Paterson, New Jersey. Although stationed in Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City, her father preferred to make the family home in Paterson, New Jersey, where he had relatives.
The move to a new environment proved difficult for Ortiz Cofer’s mother, who found herself at a loss in a foreign culture that used an alien language. The family maintained direct
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Citation: Ocasio, Rafael. "Judith Ortiz Cofer". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 June 2002; last revised 15 February 2023. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4978, accessed 23 November 2024.]
