The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica

Fiction | Poem | YA | Published in 1993

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Immigrant’s Lament

Nearly every line of “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” speaks to the loss of home. This store and its proprietor are emblems of places that the immigrant patrons knew and loved in their youth. As Cofer implies, they may never return to their homes as they knew them, which makes pilgrimages to the deli that much more necessary. This poem meditates on difficulties of displacement and the hope of new community in one’s adopted home.

Cofer draws attention to this theme through two uses of the word lost. The name of “the stale candy of everyone’s childhood” (Line 28) comes to patrons like “lost lovers” (Line 27). They experience palpable heartache when confronted with symbols of the past. The poet, as well as the deli owner, perceives this heartache through the words and actions of customers.

When referencing the deli’s ham and cheese sandwich, Cofer adds that “it would not satisfy / the hunger of the fragile old man lost in the folds / of his winter coat” (Lines 32-34). This image accentuates the vulnerability of an immigrant who likely spent his childhood in a warmer climate where he didn’t need a winter coat. He hungers not only for the store’s food but for the lost land it represents.

The deli owner performs a valuable role in her community. Not only is her face another friendly reminder—a “family portrait” (Line 19)—but she also establishes a meeting place for disparate groups who carry similar grief. Cofer describes her as “the Patroness of Exiles” (Line 7). She is a patron saint, as if visiting her store constitutes an act of worship for those far from home. Indeed, customers stay in the store and enact a kind of prayer as they air out their hopes and fears.

Most of the customers’ speeches somehow hearken to their homelands. Cofer references Cubans who long for a preserved Havana they can visit again, “where no one / has been allowed to die and nothing to change until then [...]” (Lines 14-15). Although it is impossible for a place to remain unchanged, some still wish that they could see their homes again, appearing exactly as they left them.

Indeed, Cofer finally suggests that the immigrants cannot return to the homes hidden in their memories. The deli owner listens not only to what her customers say but also to what they leave unsaid, those “needs she must divine” (Line 36) with her powers of intuition. She perceives that her patrons’ homelands are “places that now exist only in their hearts— / closed ports she must trade with” (Lines 37-38). This metaphor illuminates how one can never return to the home one knew in childhood. The closed ports are not the literal Latin American countries themselves but the immigrants’ memories of those places.

This is a longing for home that, unfortunately, not even a ticket to San Juan can assuage. Not only distance but also time has changed or erased these locations. However, the community does have the deli and each other as their piece of home in an often hostile new world.

A Communal Ars Poetica

The Latin term ars poetica (or “the art of poetry”) describes a poetic tradition that dates back thousands of years. Poets interrogate poetry itself, whether describing its role in society, its creation, or their personal relationships with writing. The ancient Roman writer Horace wrote a poem called “Ars Poetica” during the first century B.C.E., and many poets would follow his lead in centuries to come. Cofer’s “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” describes the unique poetry she finds in an unlikely place.

Other than the title, Cofer does not place any obvious clues about this theme until one of the final lines of the poem. She references the elderly customer who visits the woman’s deli and “brings her lists of items / that he reads to her like poetry [...]” (Lines 34-35). Lists resemble poems: They bring together words and images to create a meaningful whole. This “fragile old man” (Line 33) is not the only unwitting poet in the Latin Deli; the other patrons are as well.

After all, Cofer fills the deli with customers’ speech. She draws repeated attention to the complaints, pontifications, comments, and chat among the people in the store. She writes that patrons “speak to her and each other / of their dreams and their disillusions [...]” (Lines 22-23). They not only describe daily matters, but they also open up and share their deeper selves. This is the place in the heart from which poetry springs.

Cofer also makes use of the Spanish language throughout the poem, an essential part of the poetics she finds in the deli. Patrons return to the store for “the comfort / of spoken Spanish” (Lines 18-19) and for the Spanish names on food items that remind them of life in their native countries. These words are as precious “as if / they were the names of lost lovers [...]” (Lines 26-27). The woman, her store, and the items that fill it clearly inspire people to speak from their hearts and create a kind of poetry from their experiences there. With her essential role and the environment she creates, the deli owner is a muse for this spontaneous artistic expression.

Not only is the woman a muse, however, but she is a type of poet herself. As the deli owner, she selects her wares carefully and for a specific purpose. The store is her own piece of art, a collection of goods that evoke powerful memories for her customers.

Cofer does not reference herself overtly in this poem, but its themes of cultural duality and displacement run throughout her body of work. The ars poetica, then, encapsulates not only Cofer’s individual poetry but also that of her community.

Maternal Nourishment

The speaker establishes the importance of the relationship between a mother and child in Line 2 of the poem by drawing the reader’s eye to the image of the “plastic Mother and Child” attached to the register on the deli counter. The capitalization of the words “Mother” and “Child” mean that the image is likely that of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus, a symbol of Catholic devotion that many of the deli owner’s customers will recognize and appreciate. Though the image has clear religious connotations, it also illuminates the role of the shopkeeper in the minds and hearts of her customers.

The religious icon depicting the Mother and Child, also known as the Madonna and Child or the Virgin and Child, may be plastic, but it is still able to communicate a sacred message to the customers of the Latin deli. The appearance of the Mother and Child at the cash register reminds anyone who sees the icon of reverence towards God, and it elevates the experience of visiting the Latin deli to something spiritual. Though the deli owner’s customers primarily seek nourishment in the form of familiar food and drink, going to the deli also provides them emotional and spiritual nourishment, as the owner speaks Spanish and reminds them of their own family members.

In most images of the Mother and Child, the Virgin Mary holds the infant Jesus tenderly, depicting emotions of maternal love and devotion as well as Catholic reverence towards the son of God. In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker describes the deli owner in maternal terms, drawing the reader’s eye to “the family portrait/of her plain wide face, her ample bosom” (Lines 19-20). The woman’s large breasts represent her ability to feed and to nourish, implying her own body’s participation in her maternal love and devotion to her customers. In Line 21 of the poem, the speaker mentions “her look of maternal interest” as her customers talk with her of their hopes and dreams. As well, the second stanza ends with an image of different brands of “the stale candy of everyone’s childhood” (Line 28), confirming the deli owner’s role as a mother figure in the poem.