ORAL PRESENTATION THEME: AMERICAN HISTORY AUTHOR: JUDITH ORTIZ COFER Presented by: Rebeca M. Colón Crespo

American History is the story of a fourteen year old Puerto Rican girl named Elena. She is being raised by her parents in Paterson, New Jersey during the 1960’s. They live in an apartment building inhabit mainly by Puerto Ricans known as “El Building”. This apartment building is located on what used to be a Jewish neighborhood, but had now become home to mostly Puerto Ricans and African Americans.

Elena’s story takes place the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. That day, she was at her school playground, during her Physical Education class. She was feeling miserable. Being the weather so cold, and having forgotten her gloves, her knuckles were turning red and raw from the jump rope. That day, wasn’t her day. The African-American girls, with which she was playing, were picking on her and calling her names: “Skinny Bones”. And all, in part, just because she was not swinging the jump rope fast enough. She was feeling so miserable; she even said that she hated her “skinny, flat-chested body”.

But, the only good thing for Elena that day was the invitation to study for an American history test that she had received from a young boy named Eugene, and who she had a crush for, at his house. Eugene was her new next door neighbor. He had moved with his parents from Georgia. His father worked for a company that transferred him to Paterson. Eugene’s mother was not happy about it. Because of his accent, the kids at Public School Number 13 began to pick on him too and nicked named him “the Hick”. But, being both Elena and Eugene object of ridicule and marginalized at school, they soon became inseparable, despite their cultural differences.

Now, while all of this is happening around Elena’s life, so is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Everyone in the United States was mourning his death, including the teachers at her school, her parents and apartment building neighbors, her community, etc. That is, everyone but Elena. She was focused on her study date with Eugene at his house.

That day, after school, she rushes to her apartment home, changes her clothes and goes to tell her mother that she was going out to study at a friend’s house. Her mother questioned Elena: “you are going out today?” like she could not believe it. And just before Elena could answer, her mother exclaimed: “Hija (daughter), the president has been killed. We must show respect. He was a great man. Come with me tonight to church.”

Now back at the apartment and stunned by what happened back at Eugene’s house, Elena is now laying in her bed “trying to feel the right thing for our dead president”, but her tears where not so much because of the president’s death, but instead, for herself. In summary, the theme of this short story is about the personal and collective aspects of tragedy and how it can either bring people together or separate them.

The Character: Elena, a fourteen year old Puerto Rican girl raised by her parents in Paterson, New Jersey during the 1960’s in an apartment building known as “El Building”. The Setting: The same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Plot: The series of events surrounding Elena are the “bullying” that she is being subject to by the African American girls at school, the social context and condition in which she was being raised, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, her relation with Eugene, a smart young boy who also experience “bullying” at the same school and for hum Elena felt a crush for named Eugene. Conflict: The struggle Elena experiences, within herself, between what is right to be felt and expressed when facing tragedies, be them personal ones, or collective ones. Theme: The personal and collective aspects of tragedy and how it can either bring people together or separate them.