Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance Of A Puerto Rican Childhood

First published in 1990, the creative memoir Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood explores the childhood and adolescence of author Judith Ortiz Cofer. This study guide uses the second edition published in 1991 by Arte Público Press.

Born in Puerto Rico, Cofer grew up moving between a Puerto Rican village and Paterson, New Jersey, where her father was stationed with the US Navy. Through a series of essays and poems, Cofer examines this lifestyle and how it shaped her and her writing. Although ostensibly autobiographical, the book contains as much fiction and imaginative writing as it does straightforward recollection. In fact, Cofer makes this something of a mission statement; her intention is not simply to recall facts but to explore the familial and emotional connections of her past through creative storytelling. This intent is greatly influenced by her grandmother’s oral tradition, which focused on emotional resonance and educational parables over factual accuracy, shaping Cofer’s voice and setting her on the path to writing Silent Dancing. The resulting memoir is a complex, poetic text that reflects the dualisms and fragmentation of its subject through

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