Bodega v. Mercado and Tienda

[Grant Barrett]

On Wednesday, March 29, 2000, martinezg at KENYON.EDU wrote:

> In short, then, I believe that the presence of the word
>"bodega" is largely or perhaps better originally due to Puerto Rican
>influence, and a term like Hispanic/Puerto Rican Grocery Store really doesn't
>capture the meaning of what a bodega really is or was.

Very nicely put. I would add a couple small, insignificant bits:

That the Times article uses "bodega" freely indicates to me that the word surpasses
the Latino community.

In my experience, bodegas surpass ethnic boundaries: they can be found (and called
such) in every neighborhood I have lived and all I have visited, Latino or not. I
would say that a "bodega" and a "Korean grocery" on opposite corners of the same
intersection serve the same customers--in non-Latino neighborhoods. Bodegas in Latino
neighborhoods serve a non-commercial, social function as a place of gathering and gossip,
unlike Korean groceries.

A definition I wrote of bodega for a newcomer a couple of years ago: Usually on the
corner. Windows covered with promotional signs and stickers for cigarette companies.
Spanish-speaking men standing outside telling tall tales and discussing sports and
politics. An Optimo cigar sign, a Lotto machine and laundry soap in faded boxes in the
window improves the odds it is a bodega.

In Ecuador, as in some other Spanish-speaking countries, bodega is also indicated as
a place of storage. As a New Yorker this caused me to pause.

I'm guessing Sallie was a student at Columbia, as am I. My current neighborhood
(near Columbia) includes large numbers of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Mexicans (you can
tell by the flags on cars and stores, and in the windows). South Americans are a
distinct minority of all the Hispanics, though they are here, as are Central Americans.
Usually Peruvians, Ecuadorians and Guatemalans.