Bodega Stories, livre ebook

A window into a Dominican family’s bodega and the community at its heart

A bodega is much more than a neighborhood grocery store—it’s a lifeline to community and culture. In Bodega Stories, Amaris Castillo takes readers inside Orlando Latin Market, a bodega owned and operated by her parents in St. Petersburg, Florida, to reveal a thriving local hub that bridges generations, languages, and traditions.

Meet the regulars: Castillo’s glamorous Tía Margarita, who has worked part-time at the bodega for years; longtime cook Alberto, who arrives early to prepare the store’s rice, beans, empanadas, and croquetas; Chico, the owner of the barbershop next door; and Esther, who visits after church every Sunday for her crispy chicharrones. Through captivating and charming true stories of visitors who come looking for products from Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Cuba, and many other countries, readers get a glimpse into the lives of employees and customers as they navigate matters of immigration, love, history, food, and identity.

Interwoven are snapshots of daily life, like a bulletin board outside the store where local residents post apartments for rent, messages through the bodega’s Facebook page asking for hard-to-find items, and photos from the past and present. Including Castillo’s own family’s story from the Dominican Republic to New York to Florida, Bodega Stories is a portrait of finding home—between the cultures we inherit and the ones we embrace.

The entrance to Orlando Latin Market is an aluminum frame double door, but only the right one is used. This is where people hold the door open for you, sometimes, but where everyone steps aside for the doña ambling by with her cart. Where people complain about the immigration system, the increasingly heavy traffic, the overall cost of living, government bureaucracy. Where men ogle at women’s bodies or sneak in glances. Where others avert their gaze. Here, víveres—starchy root vegetables like yuca, boniato, yautía—are sold by the pound. Many customers come here seeking traces of the countries they left behind, but never really left behind, because the countries they were born into are always in their hearts. Sometimes, these same countries may cause a phantom artery blockage. Chest pain, tightness, shortness of breath. Homesickness hurts. The bodega is where a man looks for a gasket ring for his mother’s greca because, without it, she can’t make her café. And who are we as a society without our coffee? Where people come in asking if we sell cigarettes. We don’t. Where customers risk damaging the aguacates by squeezing them too hard. Not all press their thumbs into the avocados, but some can’t help it because they’re not trying to pay for something that is rotten inside. Here you’ll find sazón (spice blend seasoning), and verbal seasoning if you don’t come correct. Where some customers smile, amused, at the Cuban and Dominican women behind the register talking loudly. And where others appear uncomfortable, like they’ve walked into a party where they don’t know anyone. Where the owner, Freddy, blows into a paper bag, squeezes it closed, and pops it behind the cashier, Liuba, and his sister-in-law, Margarita, to scare them. This is where people navigate around language barriers. Where some customers point to steaming hot foods from behind the glass covering because they can’t speak Spanish and the workers are still learning English. There is a lot of pointing. Where people sometimes complain about the prices to the owners, employees, anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, if the cost goes up for the bodeguero, it is felt by the customer. Where, at the register, men and women let out audible sighs because they are ground down by work and by life. Like Dominicans say, en la lucha. In the struggle. In the fight.

Orlando Latin Market

From Quisqueya to New York City

“La Guacherna”

This Is Where

Bulletin Board in January

A Conversation with Papi

La Caja

The Tea

A (Re)Proposal

Eyes on the Prize

Bachata and Bolero

La Soledad No Mata

Working with Dinosaurs

God Is Everything to Esther

Where Are the Mamoncillos?

Bulletin Board in March

Papi Got Jokes

Messages to la Bodega on Feibu (Facebook)

Brooklyn Bodega Beginnings

The OG Bodeguera

Down the Aisle

Can They Be a Witness?

Ileana’s Mami

An Intimate Sancocho

Hard to Love

Miguel Moves On

Jesus Is Her Answer

Como La Flor

Soup Joumou

Not a Joke

Barrio Boys, Barrio Brothers

Bulletin Board in April

A Female Bodeguera

Hanging Down

Ravage

La Cocina

The Cook

Cuban Sandwich

To Fry a Maduro

Training Day

Leaving a Mark

El Carnicero

Messages to la Bodega on Feibu (Facebook)

The Reluctant Bodeguero

Happy Birthday, Pa

Bulletin Board in July

Bottled in a Basement

We Outside

Juan the Boss

A Sombrero Always, Sin Pena

Madre e Hija, Hija e Madre

A Pallet of Dreams and Beans

Welcome to Chico’s Cuts

Day Off

A Ride with Mercedes

The Bitch from Cuba

Felo the Bodega Cat

A Conversation with Tía Margarita

A Call to Papi on the Eve of Hurricane Helene

Milton

La Oficina (Storage Room)

A Piece of Cuba with Me

Mucho Trabajo y Mucha Salud

Ana the Santera

Two Years and Three Months

Mami’s Mangú

Bulletin Board in September

Tía Margarita’s Last Day

Stories Abound

Un Verano en Nueva York

Gratitude

Acknowledgments

Sources

Illustration Credits