American history summary

Judith Ortiz Cofer was a Puerto Rican-born American author. Her family settled in
Paterson, New Jersey, when she was four and relocated to Augusta, Georgia, when
she was 15. She was one of several women writers of Latin American descent whose
work became prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. A longtime Georgia resident, Cofer
was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2010. She died of cancer on her
family’s farm outside of Louisville, Georgia on December 30, 2016.

Cofer’s short story “American History” appears in The Latin Deli: prose and Poetry, a
collection of Cofer’s poetry, personal narrative, and short fiction published by the
University of Georgia Press in 1993. “American History” features in the section entitled
“From the Book of Dreams in Spanish.” The Latin Deli has been published in both
English and Spanish.

“American History” describes a day in the life of elena, a 14-year-old Puerto Rican
resident of Paterson, New Jersey. It is November 22, 1963, the day President John F.
Kennedy was assassinated. Elena has developed a crush on a boy named Eugene
whose family has just moved next door to her tenement, El Building. Eugene and his
family relocated from Georgia when the company that employs Eugene’s father
transferred him to a Paterson office. Elena and Eugene have since bonded over their
bookishness and mutual feeling of being outcasts in Paterson.

On the day of Kennedy’s assassination, Mr. DePalma, a teacher, releases Elena and
her class from school early. She and Eugene have planned to study for an American
history test together and then go to the public library. Elena’s mother implores her to
remain at home and go to church later to pray. Elena insists on going to Eugene’s,
though her mother warns her that she is making a mistake. Eugene’s mother answers
the door, looks derisively at Elena, and angrily tells her to go home, refusing to allow
Eugene to spend any more time with her. That night, Elena cries—for herself, not for
the fallen president and his family. The story concludes with her watching the snow
falling against the light from a streetlamp.