The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica

A free verse poem, “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” evokes vivid experiences through sense imagery and brief, purposeful lines. Cofer focuses on specific details that illuminate the immigrant experience. Displaced from Latin American countries, the deli’s patrons fill the store with Spanish and crave foods that remind them of their native countries. Meanwhile, the deli owner remains the steady, motherly center of the place, turning her customers into poets as they explore a wealth of “canned memories” (Line 9).

As a child, Cofer split her life between the United States and her birthplace in Puerto Rico. Her work often concentrates on this cultural duality. How do people maintain their native customs in a new land? Do their identities change the longer they spend away from home? This poem asks these questions by keeping the US in the background and placing patrons’ homelands in the foreground. Cofer names the customers’ various home countries and populates the poem with Spanish phrases. She thus magnifies patrons’ loyalty to their homes as they make their way in the United States.

Cofer also draws out her themes—and appeals to the readers’ five senses—through focusing on food. Food is a gateway to culture: both as a learning tool and as a reminder of one’s native culture.