El deli latino (PDF)

<p>This is a Spanish-language edition of <i>The Latin Deli</i>, Judith Ortiz Cofer's prizewinning collection of short stories, personal essays, and poems. A work rich in longing, love, and remembrance, <i>El deli latino</i> opens a door into the lives of the Puerto Rican immigrants who live in or near an urban New Jersey tenement known as &quot;El Building.&quot; The book was selected by Rita Dove, Ashley Montague, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. to receive the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, which recognizes work that has made &quot;important contributions to our understanding of racism or our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.&quot;</p><p>In the poem from which the book takes its title, a &quot;woman of no-age&quot; presides over a small store whose wares&mdash;Bustelo coffee, jamón y queso, &quot;green plantains hanging in stalks like votive offerings&quot;&mdash;must satisfy, however imperfectly, those who hunger for their island home. In the story &quot;Nada,&quot; an anguished mother whose son has been killed in Vietnam refuses the consolation of her neighbors and the medals offered by the government (&quot;Tell the Mr. President of the United States what I say: No, gracias.&quot;). Cofer's essay &quot;The Paterson Public Library&quot; recalls how, in books, she found refuge and solace from the outside world.</p><p><i>El deli latino</i> transcends the particulars of the expatriate experience to speak universal truths about the mysteries of desire, the quest for knowledge, and the struggle to reconcile opposing selves.</p>