Reading this personal essay by Judith Otiz Cofer was really interesting because it relates to the personal essay that I had planned on writing for my project. The connection that her essay has with mine is that she discusses how life was great for her in Puerto Rico and how everything changed when she moved to the states. In my personal essay I discussed how life was before Katrina, how it changed during Katrina, and also how life changed when I had to leave New Orleans and relocate to another city. I felt the similar connection with that topic. As she discussed how life was great back in Puerto Rico, she pointed out specific details that set you into a time, place, atmosphere, and direct feeling. This is one of the main points discussed when writing a personal essay. The main purpose of this personal essay though is to inform readers on how when she moved to the United States, her and her family was discriminated against. Judith Ortiz starts off describing the good life she had in Puerto Rico by discussing how she would receive dolls and gifts for Christmas, and how the family would all get together and have a celebration, which made her happy. All of this change when she moved to the United States. People here discriminated against her and her family because of where they were from. She discussed the cultural changes once she moved and how everything was different. Judith retold the story of a horrifying day in class, when a boy who was a foreigner just like her tricked her into doing the wrong thing. He had gotten her in trouble with the teacher, which resulted in the teacher throwing a book at her. Every since that day, Judith stated “I did not forgive her for throwing that book at me, Yes, I would recognize that book even now. It was not until years later that I had stopped hating that teacher for not understanding that I had been betrayed by a classmate, and by my inability to read her warning on the board.” After this experience Judith kind of had an even harder time adjusting to her new surroundings. The description the author used was great. She gave us character description, places, and dialogue. The use of those tools mad this personal essay a very good one. This essay teaches you that people shouldn’t be discriminated against or looked down upon because of where they come from, and the writer had to experience this as a child.
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kcarmouche 
Ke’Juan,
In your blog entry, you state, “The main purpose of this personal essay though is to inform readers on how when she moved to the United States, her and her family was discriminated against.” This is a fact of when happened to Cofer and her family; it’s not quite her purpose. But there must be a reason she chose to tell this story in the first place. What do you think this reason is? What does she want her readers to realize or think about through her story? What argument is she trying to make? Also, you say that life in Puerto Rico had been good for Cofer and her family. Are you sure about that? While her childhood there had seemed pleasant, something was off, wasn’t it? Her family didn’t quite fit in there just as they didn’t quite fit in in the United States. What accounts for this? What’s the connection to her father?
Your essay had a good introduction. Unlike my essay you took into consideration that the reader may not have read the story so that was good. I also like how you compared her essay to yours showing that you felt a connection when you read this essay. You gave full explanations/examples from the story and the way you transitioned your essay made it easy to read, giving readers a clear understanding of the story. Although you wrote about how Cofer and how her family were discriminated in America, there was another purpose you could have wrote about. She talks about her experiences with her father in Peru where even in their home village they were also discriminated against. Since her father was in the military their family was very well off financially. However, even though this may have made things well for her it brought envy to the other people of the village. They could not be proud of their nice things because of the way society viewed them. We can make this connection of discrimination with their arrival in America where her fair-skinned father is ashamed of his mother’s dark skin because it does not meet society’s standard of what is perfect. With that being taken from the story we can say that she was trying to suggest that we try to live according to society’s expectations. Other than that I enjoyed your response and it was very well written.