The poem Quinceañera by Judith Ortiz Cofer is dedicated to the celebration of the 15th birthday of girls in Latin America. This day marks the transition of girls from adolescence to adulthood. In the poem, the author shows the girl’s feelings as she passes into adulthood. Cofer uses a lot of imagery, conveying them through the girl’s perceptions, which helps the reader better to understand the heroine’s emotions during the quinceañera celebration.
The poem begins with the girl realizing that the period of carefree childhood has already ended for her. Her “dolls have been put away like dead children” (Cofer). She will no longer be able to play with them, as she did as a child, and will only see these dolls when she marries and passes them on to her children. In addition, the hairstyle and clothes that the girl should now wear are changing. The girl’s hair is collected with her mother’s hairpins, which makes the reader realize that the girl is no longer her parents’ child. After her 15th birthday, a girl acquires the same social status of an “adult woman” as her mother. “A satin slip” is under her skirt now, and the heroine herself notes that “it is soft as the inside of my thighs” (Cofer). Thus, the author shows that in addition to changes in appearance, the girl also notices physiological changes in her body, making her more feminine.
The girl from the poem does not share other people’s feelings about her growing up. She doesn’t understand why everyone thinks “the fluids of my body were poison” (Cofer) and her blood is “shameful.” The heroine asks a series of rhetorical questions to understand how women differ from men. She cannot understand how the blood men shed in battle is better and more beautiful than her blood. Moreover, she does not understand why her body is considered sinful while the bleeding hands of Christ are holy.
In addition, the girl also notes physiological changes in her body that bring her discomfort. The girl says that she feels how she grows at night, and she subconsciously tries “to soothe skin stretched tight over my bones” (Cafer). These lines raise another issue related to the girl’s lack of information about what to expect from growing up. People around talked about her new responsibilities, but no one explained how to deal with the changes in her body.
Therefore, she is forced to experience all the consequences of growing up with her body alone. In the end, the girl compares herself to a broken watch and finally waits for all her torment to end. Quinceañera for girls is too abrupt a transition to adulthood when they have to forget about childhood carelessness and become adults in an instant, and this experience is undoubtedly very traumatic. Moreover, the image of the clock can probably give the reader an idea of how much these traditions are a relic of the past.
Subconsciously, the heroine is aware of the burden that the status of an adult woman imposes on the female. Society will now closely monitor that she meets all the “standards” for adult women that exist in society. The heroine realizes that being a woman is much more complex than being a girl. Still, these difficulties do not lie in physiological changes but in society’s image of a woman. In general, this is a feminist text that shows how a woman perceives social bonds regarding her.
In general, throughout the poem, one can feel how the author condemns the traditions of Latin American countries associated with the Quinceañera. Even though Cofer does not openly declare its support for a girl forced to forget about her childhood and become an adult, she remains by her side. By describing the inner experience and feelings of the heroine, the author is probably trying to convey to the reader how wrong and outdated this tradition is.
Work Cited
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. “Quinceañera”. Poetry Foundation. Web.