Viva La Bodega

Since moving to Brooklyn, my morning routine has become somewhat…well, routine. Everything I do to get ready for my 7a.m. to 7p.m. day benefits me somehow; I take a shower because it makes my feel fresh, I do my makeup because it makes me feel confident, I kiss my boyfriend goodbye because it makes me feel loved, and I get coffee at the bodega on the corner because it makes me feel like part of a community.

I’ll be honest; I don’t know any of the bodega guys’ names. But, to be fair, they don’t know mine either. There, I’m just “Mami” or “Mi Amor,” so I’ve never felt bad about never asking their names. I did ask one guy his name because he was new (I couldn’t ask the guys who I’d seen there for years because we were far too deep into our relationship to go back now) and I guess he took my interest in his name as a profession of my love because from then on, he would caress my hand every time he took my money. Then, one day he figured out that I spoke a little Spanish. He would stand there behind the counter and tell me how beautiful I am in front of my boyfriend, who doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish.

“What did he say?” my boyfriend would ask after we left.

“Oh, just that they got more Modelo in stock,” I’d say, just to prevent an altercation the next time we went in. Eventually, the frequency of my visits to this bodega made me wonder about how these stores, which seem to be on every block in New York, from the hood to the Upper West Side, came to be so popular.

In the nineteenth century, there was no such thing as chain grocery store, so each neighborhood had its own, each catering to a different population. The German-owned shops popularized the tradition of selling deli meat over the counter, the Jewish-owned shops started selling sandwiches to busy travelers, but it was the Dominican and Puerto Rican shop owners who coined the term, bodega. Bodega translates to different things depending on what country you’re in; sometimes it means a grocery store, sometimes it means a liquor store, and sometimes it means a pantry. However, all these different translations contributed to the different functions bodegas serve. Nowhere else in New York can you get a Colt 45, a baconeggandcheese, and a half gallon of milk in the same place.

Today, there are about 12,000 bodegas in New York, owned by all types of people, although the majority is still Dominican or Puerto Rican. New York wouldn’t be New York without them and my neighborhood certainly wouldn’t be the same with out them either. Not only do they serve as community centers, but they’re open longer than most grocery stores for your last minute needs. When in doubt, check your local bodega, you’d be surprised what you’ll find there.

-Marie Pruitt