The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica

Latinos in the United States are bound together as a community through by their experiences in America itself. One writer who has addressed the unity of Latinos is Puerto Rican author and poet Judith Ortiz Cofer. Cofer has written many personalities situations in: Silent Dancing and TheLine of the Sun Cofer.  The poem "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” was first published in Americas Review in 1992 and later appeared in a collection of poems, short fiction stories, and personal essays titled The Latin Deli. The Latin Deli is dominant by one subject; the lives of Puerto Ricans in a New Jersey barrio that is also drawn from the author's own childhood.

                 

The books main setting is located in an apartment building called “El Building”. El Building is an apartment building located in Paterson, New Jersey; it is home to many Puerto Rican residents. Many of these Puerto Ricans are facing new challenges adjusting with their new lives in America. From the joy and tragedies of childhood to adulthood most of the stories and poems are told from a perspective of a young girl who faces challenges in her home also in El Building. “Corazon’s Café” is an example and a short story, in the book, that tells about a couple named Corazon and Manuel moving from the islands of Puerto Rico to Paterson, New Jersey – running their own bodega where they supply Rican and other international groceries called Corazon’s Café located across the street from the El Building barrio. But Manuel desires more of disturbing food to his people; he also offers special customs that he has chariest, advice and love. “Manuel was never happier than when he was planning the food to celebrate life and never more beautiful in Corazon’s eyes than when he comforted the grieving widow or orphan with food prepared with all the care and love he had to give”(112). His wife is the one who organizes those desires and puts them to plan. This short story relates The Latino Deli because Corazon offers her shop, Corazon’s Café, to help her community to those who would like help. The Latin Deli is like a shop itself where it identifies the differences between American and Hispanic culture so that the Hispanic immigrants can still have a part of home with them.

               

The Latin Deli is very unique and I recommend this book to everyone; to those who can relate to family struggles or family neglect and even those who simply love/like to read and needs something to read. Marvelously woven, this book is full of the culture, heartfelt, inspiring and heartbreaking stories in the lives of El Building. 

Book Review by Dalena N.