The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood

In Cuba, Blanco’s abuela “sold her confections on the black market” (1) to save enough money for her and her family to move to New York City, where she buys and resells inexpensive items and becomes “a bookie for […] an illegal racket run by Cuban mafiosos” (2). Abuela gives Blanco’s parents money for a down payment on a house in Miami, under the condition that she and Abuelo can live there “rent-free—for life!” (4).

Abuela, who annoys Blanco’s mother with her “jabs” (5), is assigned the weekly cooking and shopping. She takes Blanco along as she visits the “dingy, […] ,” “rusty” (5) Cuban bodegas, where she convinces the owners to give her deals and complains to Blanco that the cashiers shortchange her.

Blanco yearns to go to Winn-Dixie, where he’d be able to buy “many of the American foods like Pop-Tarts, Ritz Crackers and Cool Whip” (7), but Abuela insists that “[o]nly los americanos shop there” (8). When a Winn-Dixie flyer advertises fryer chickens at an exceptionally low price, “[h]er stinginess slowly overcame her fear of americanos” (9). She agrees to go as long as Blanco goes with her.