The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica Historical Context

Judith Ortiz Cofer
This Study Guide consists of approximately 50 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Latin Deli.
Related Topics

The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica Historical Context

Judith Ortiz Cofer
This Study Guide consists of approximately 50 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Latin Deli.
This section contains 427 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica Study Guide

In an interview in Callaloo Ortiz Cofer comments on the cultural background of the poem as well as the collected works:

The book is called The Latin Deli because the centers,
the hearts of the barrios in New Jersey were the
bodegas, which were called delis by some of us. There
were Jewish and Italian delis. So if you sold sandwiches,
well, it was a deli and that was part of our
language. . .[F]ood is important in its nurturing of the
barrio. To my parents their idea of paradise was eating
pasteles (pork meat turnovers). All my stories, I feel,
have political commitment, but in "Corazon's Cafe"
there is a woman fully committed to nurturing the
barrio, to bringing life to it, not by standing on a soap
box, not by becoming a great philosopher, but by
keeping this bodega open. So that the people...











(read more)

This section contains 427 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica Study Guide
Copyrights
Gale
The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.