Valor: Superman and Comic Books

Valor Close Reading Assignment The author of Valor is Judith Ortiz Cofer. Judith was born in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. She soon after moved to New Jersey and then later of Georgia. She claims that her experiences helped inspire her work. She said, “How can you inject passion and purpose into your work if it has no roots?” She also tells that she comes for a long blood line of storytellers who also influenced her at a young age. Some of her publications are: The Line of the Sun, A Love Story Beginning in Spanish, The Latin Deli, and also The Year of the Revolution. Judith is currently a professor at the University of Georgia. The short story I chose was Valor. Valor is about a young girl that loves super hero comic books. She has dreams where she becomes Supergirl and flies around her neighborhood. We later find out that the girl and her family are from Puerto Rico. We also find out that the girls’ mother wishes she could return to Puerto Rico but they have no money to fly there. At the end of the story we find out the mother want to fly just like her daughter because she says, “Ay, si yo pudiera volar.”(Cofer pp. 198) This is translated to “Oh, if only I could fly.” The passage I chose was:
“At twelve I was an avid consumer of comic books—Supergirl being my favorite. I spent my allowance of a quarter a day on two twelve-cent comic books or a double issue for twenty-five. I had a stack of Legion of Super Heroes and Supergirl comic books in my bedroom closet that was as tall as I. I had a recurring dream in those days: that I had long blond hair and could fly. In my dream I climbed the stairs to the top of our apartment building as myself, but as I went up each flight, changes would be taking place. Step by step I would fill out: my legs would grow long, my arms harden into steel, and my hair would magically go straight and turn a golden color. . . . Supergirl had to be aerodynamic. Sleek and hard as a supersonic missile.”
I chose this passage because I believe