Coco-Cola and Coco Frio

The journey of Coco-Cola and Coco Frio In the poem “Coca-Cola and Coco Frio” Martin Espada talks about a boy who travels to Puerto Rico searching for something different, that he himself has never had or tasted before, Puerto Rican Culture. The narrator explains that he only knows stories of his family, realization of his identity, and finally connects with his true identity after his first trip. In the poem Espada says “island of family folklore” witch indicates that stories that he has heard is all he knows of Puerto Rico, the family’s that live there.

Espada also says the fat boy wandered, table to table, with mouth open. He was looking for heritage, culture, and identity instead he found what he had in Brooklyn witch was Coco-Cola. In the text he keeps on referring to himself as the fat boy that is on the island, like and out sider that doesn’t fit anywhere. The fat boy sees himself going to every table where he sees a “great-aunt” giving him a cold glass of Coco-Cola. Witch in his mind he is thinking to his self why Coco-Cola is such a great thing here. Espada makes it clear that the fat boy is lost in his own identity.

In the second stanza he still refers to himself as the fat boy when he gets to the roadside stand off the beach. That first sentence he says “opened his mouth to Coco Frio”. That means he finally opened his mind to a new feeling in his identity, Culture. Once the fat bot tried the Coco-Frio he was no longer the fat bot he was the boy now. As the green shell overhead, drooled coconut milk down his chin. He finally got to know how his family culture is. The last sentence in the second stanza Espada says “suddenly, Puerto Rico was not Coco-Cola or Brooklyn, and neither was he”.

He was explaining how Puerto Rico and Brooklyn weren’t all about Coco-Cola anymore. He finally connects to his culture and he knows his identity. Time went by and the boy thought back of how people on the island would drink Coco-Cola and sing songs from WW2. To the boy people in Puerto Rico were losing their culture and they were focusing on the American culture with coco cola. As Espada would state in the third stanza “while so many coconuts in the trees sagged have with milk, swollen and unsuckled”.

The boy was trying to say that as a lot of people focus on coco cola as a new icon in Puerto Rico there losing their true identity and Culture as the boy did before trying the coconut. The experiences that Espada went through when he got to the island other people go through also. Every day people try to find their true identity in their culture making sure people don’t miss important details. The boy finally understands what it means to be a true Puerto Rican, it’s not all about the party’s and fun u can have on the island. Its learning how the island has symbols that people don’t see.