What is the theme in The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica by Judith Ortiz Cofer?

The clash between American and Spanish culture becomes the impetus for the immigrants to come to the Latin deli. In an interview in Melus Ortiz Cofer notes that this theme predominates in all the stories and poems in The Latin Deli. Her work reflects her own experience with trying to reconcile the contradictions in her cultural identity. She explains, "I write in English, yet I write obsessively about my Puerto Rican experience. . .That is how my psyche works.