It's hard to resist
Café Bustelo, both for the rich flavor and because it comes in that wonderful red and yellow can that always seems to brighten up wherever it goes. Also, Café Bustelo makes me think of an excerpt from
The Portable Beat Reader that describes the creative process behind Brenda Frazer's
Troia: Mexican Memoirs (first published in 1969 under the name Bonnie Bremser)
. As Brenda/Bonnie detailed: "...discipline consisted of copying my favorite author, Kerouac, and adapting a ritualistic existence centered around the daily hour or so of actual writing. I had only my memories, and recalling them was part of the creative atmosphere I set for myself ...I lived on Café Bustelo, beans, and rice." Café Bustelo has Cuban origins but it also comes in a Mexican-style instant version, which might have been just as appropriate a beverage for the writing of
Mexican Memoirs. And true Beat fans might consider fixing a cup of Bustelo and reading
Troia: Mexican Memoirs themselves, because the story is autobiographical and intense and as fascinating as any of the doings of Beat Generation men.
