The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica | Themes

The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica Themes

Culture Clash

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. I am a composite of two worlds. . . .I lived with. . .conflictive expectations: the pressures from my father to become very well versed in the English language and the Anglo customs, and from my mother not to forget where we came from. That is something that I deal with in my work all the time." She continues, "One of the things that is so dissonant about the lives...
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