Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. WHOSE PLACE is influenced by the language of loss and the loss of language. Some poems are seen through eyes of a little girl, where the differences in the language and culture of her family puertorriquena and that of los americanos are magnified. Older, she realizes that her language "progression" created a second language that has devoured her first, now poorer. A poet, Cortes plays with and invents words, combining them in unexpected ways, often untranslatable but ultimately understood. About her first book Jaime Manrique says, "Cortes's debut is as mature and definitive a literary performance as any I know of. Her oceanic, Whitmanesque voice contains ... extravagances that make my `eyes laugh' and my soul soar."