Call Me Maria
by Judith Ortiz Cofer

Maria is a girl caught between two worlds: Puerto Rico, where she was born, and New York, where she now lives in a basement apartment in the barrio. While her mother remains on the island, Maria lives with her father, the super of their building. As she struggles to lose her island accent, Maria does her best to find her place within the unfamiliar culture of the barrio. Finally, with the Spanglish of the barrio people ringing in her ears, she finds the poet within herself.

Excerpt:
The minute I step through the electric eye, the drug-store's alarm goes off and several pairs of eyes freeze me inside the cage of their suspicion. I stand on the spiky plastic Welcome mat, waiting for someone to release me, to say "Go on, it is all a mistake." The rotund manager, propelling down the center aisle toward me like a nuclear submarine in his too-tight steel-gray suit, his pudgy finger aimer at me, orders me in a loud voice to come back and empty my purse on the counter. I protest, put my hands up. I have not done anything. But his face - folds of hardened rubbery flesh, mouth curling into a tight smile of scorn, eyes almost slits - tell me to expect no pity. He informs me that he will call security if I do not obey. I turn over my bag on the glass case that displays cheap watches, their plastic faces impassively watching me through safety glass - a jury box of Timex ladies' and men's, alarms ready to go off when I am found guilty, none of them showing the right time.



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