“The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica”- Judith Ortiz Cofer

Presiding over a formica counter, plastic Mother and Child magnetized to the top of an ancient register, the heady mix of smells from the open bins of dried codfish, the green plantains hanging in stalks like votive offerings, she is the Patroness of Exiles, a woman of no-age who was never pretty, who spends her days selling canned memories while listening to the Puerto Ricans complain that it would be cheaper to fly to San Juan than to buy a pound of Bustelo coffee here, and to Cubans perfecting their speech of a "glorious return" to Havana--where no one has been allowed to die and nothing to change until then; to Mexicans who pass through, talking lyrically of dólares to be made in El Norte-- all wanting the comfort of spoken Spanish, to gaze upon the family portrait of her plain wide face, her ample bosom resting on her plump arms, her look of maternal interest as they speak to her and each other of their dreams and their disillusions-- how she smiles understanding, when they walk down the narrow aisles of her store reading the labels of packages aloud, as if they were the names of lost lovers; Suspiros,
Merengues, the stale candy of everyone's childhood.
She spends her days slicing jamón y queso and wrapping it in wax paper tied with string: plain ham and cheese that would cost less at the A&P, but it would not satisfy the hunger of the fragile old man lost in the folds of his winter coat, who brings her lists of items that he reads to her like poetry, or the others, whose needs she must divine, conjuring up products from places that now exist only in their hearts-- closed ports she must trade with.