What events in the story "American History" by Judith Ortiz Cofer would have turned out differently if John F. Kennedy had not been assassinated?

The setting in Cofer’s story "American History" is November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Thus it is appropriate to say the story would have been completely different if Kennedy had not been shot and killed. Cofer likely would have chosen another day of significance in American life for her setting. There are, however, several incidents in the story, listed in chronological order below, that would not have occurred on that cold November day.

The playground incident would have differed significantly from Cofer’s account. There are several things Mr. DePalma, the “short, muscular man with slicked-down black hair … and disciplinarian at P.S. 13 … the man who called your parents in for 'a conference'” probably would not have done. The most obvious difference would be that the announcement, “the President is dead,” would not have occurred. However, there are several other things that would not have happened at school that day. First, the Mr. DePalma described above would never have allowed the students he called “you idiots” and “a bunch of losers” to see him crying, sobbing and shrieking uncontrollably on the playground. And of course, school would not have let out an hour early. The playground incident is the first of three scenes in which Skinny Bones describes adults “crying” and distraught over the assassination of the President. Skinny Bones' whole world seemed to be in mourning.

Unlike the familiar din of daily life—cars honking, students hanging out at the drug store, unemployed men blocking the entrance into El Building, abusive tongues of viragoes (noisy scolding from women)—Skinny Bones describes the “eerie feeling on the streets” and the unusual quiet in El Building: no music, no scolding, no yelling, just that eerie silence that befalls people who have been told that a loved one has died. November 22, 1963, would have been pretty much like any other day in Patterson, New Jersey, except for the death of the President.

To the Puerto Ricans, President Kennedy’s death meant something profound. He was their hope for better lives, even less racism (think about how the black girls on the playground treated Skinny Bones). Unlike their usual late-night conversations, Skinny Bones heard her parents “talking softly in the kitchen for hours,” not about their own hopes and “dreams for the future, or life in Puerto Rico,” but “about the young widow and her two children, as if they were family.” It is indeed as if a family member has died. Skinny Bones next describes the observance of “luto in [her] apartment; that is, [they] would practice restraint and silence—no loud music or laughter,” even offering that “[s]ome of the women of El Building would wear black for weeks” as if they had lost a close family member. While a death in the family would have profoundly affected Skinny Bones, her parents, and possibly some of the others in El Building, the quiet that came over the entire neighborhood —representing the whole United States—and everyone in El Building—representing every household in the United States —would not have occurred. Without the assassination of JFK, the joys of her friendship with the new boy and going to his house might have continued to permeate the narrator’s story. The President’s death, however, overshadowed the joy of her “date” with Eugene.

Arriving at Eugene’s house and finding his mother in tears, much like Skinny Bones found her own mother after school, turns a 14-year-old's “love story” into a sad recitation of a “death in the family.” Without the Kennedy assassination, Cofer could perhaps have written the story of a happy encounter with Mr. Right. Skinny Bones' distress at being denied the meeting with Eugene comes to the forefront when she writes, “[t]hat night, I lay in my bed trying to feel the right thing for our dead President. But the tears that came up from a deep source inside me were strictly for me.”

The profound joy of newfound love was changed in mid-story to the profound sadness of mourning a great loss to a family, a neighborhood, indeed a nation. It is not likely Skinny Bones would have seen the three adults in her story crying, or a building full of usually boisterous, unrelated people quietly mourning, or the noisy world outside P.S. 13 and El Building turned into one of eerie silence. Perhaps Eugene’s mother would not have dismissed Skinny Bones so quickly had she herself not been distraught over Kennedy’s death. Skinny Bones may not have been denied the happy ending to her love story if Kennedy had not been killed.