Call Me Maria By Judith Ortiz Cofer

Cofer, Judith Ortiz.  Call Me Maria: A novel in letters, poems, and prose.  Orchard Books: New York. 2004. 127 pages.

Judith Ortiz Cofer’s novel, Call Me Maria, describes the coming of age for a young Puerto Rican girl that is caught between two different worlds: her childhood home with her mother, Puerto Rico, and her new home in the barrio of New York with her father.   While her mother stays in Puerto Rico, Maria goes to New York with her father for the hope of an American education.  Throughout the story, Maria struggles to resolve the conflict between her two identities through poetry.   Through poetry Maria is able to resolve this conflict of identity that incorporates the aspects of English, Spanish, and Spanglish.  In addition to the coming of age novel, Call Me Maria deals with the issue of prejudice, machismo, and divorce.  In the end, Maria is forced to choose between her parents and the two different ways it means to be Puerto Rican.  She ends up choosing to stay with her father in America, because she has become more than just the island girl she was.

This novel was very interesting to read, because of its unusual writing style.  The novel is a combination of poems, letters, diary entries, and prose, which allows for the reader to understand points of view of different characters.  One difficult aspect to teach may be Spanish in the novel; some of the dialogue is only in Spanish which may be difficult for non-Spanish speakers.  However, this may be a positive for the novel because it allows Spanish speakers to have a large part in discussion.  This novel could be taught at any level for middle school but it would be a great novel to read during a poetry unit.