Maria, Maria, Just Met a Girl Named Maria...

When I read Judith Ortiz Cofer’s essay “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria,” I have to admit I got the song Maria, from West Side Story stuck in my head. I was head stage manager for that play in my senior year, so the play was going on in the back of my head as I read Cofer’s article.

It struck me as odd that all these people thought that since West Side Story makes Latin people seem one way, then that is the way they are supposed to be. I’ve never thought that, especially after watching the play. You would think that anyone with any common sense would realize that it was a story…an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet…not something that actually happened. Do you often see people running around down the street singing while they try to knife one other? No…because that’s silly…and you’d think people would understand that the stereotyping in West Side Story is just as silly to apply to real life.

I mean, yes, Puerto Ricans have the flamboyance and bright colours of their culture, but that’s not all they are…and the fact that the woman at the restaurant thought that Cofer was a waitress just because of the colour of her skin is so ridiculous. It’s upsetting that people do that, they see a colour on your skin and automatically think you’re lesser than them…you’re the help, not a widely known author.

If you were faced with someone singing derogatory songs to you on a bus or in another very public place, just because of the colour of your skin or the heritage you have…what would you do?