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Judith Ortiz Cofer's spirited multigenre collection includes poetry, myth, fiction, and essays from the viewpoint of young people coming of age in a troubling world. One of the major characters, Maria Elenita, follows her own curiosity and sense of adventure through awakening womanhood and the discovery of her sexual self. Her mother, according to Maria Elenita, decorated their home in "ear... More

Judith Ortiz Cofer's spirited multigenre collection includes poetry, myth, fiction, and essays from the viewpoint of young people coming of age in a troubling world. One of the major characters, Maria Elenita, follows her own curiosity and sense of adventure through awakening womanhood and the discovery of her sexual self. Her mother, according to Maria Elenita, decorated their home in "early Puerto Rican: a religious print in every room.... It came to be a symbol for me of our relationship in those days."

The matrilineal connection is revealed as both homeplace and battleground. The poem "Mamacita" describes mother as a prevailing presence who "hummed all day long / over the caboose kitchen" and "dragged her broom / across a lifetime of linoleum floors." On the other hand, in the essay "Vida," mother becomes controversy: "My mother started to complain about the little things Vida did, or did not do.... Mother was spreading her wings and getting ready to fight for exclusivity over her nest." The revolution depicted is part of the human condition, the rough change from child to adult, couched in the bright colors of the barrio. --Susan Swartwout

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