Bodega v. Mercado and Tienda

[Peter Farruggio]

By the way, bodega is the historical word for the hold of a ship.  In the
caribbean it has come to mean a store.  In Mexico (or at least some
regions) it has come to mean "warehouse"  But if you think of the Spanish
colonial period, when the hispanicized creoles (not the indigenous peoples)
gave high priority to European goods, you can see the derivation of the
word into a place for holding commercial goods (as opposed to goods
produced locally by slaves or bonded labor)

Pete Farruggio




At 01:37 PM 3/29/00, martinezg wrote:
>"Bodega", to my South Texas ear, refers to a warehouse or storage facility of
>some kind. The word for grocery store most commonly used in South Texas (Rio
>Grande Valley) is "abarroteria" although "tienda" "(super)mercado" and
>sometimes "groceria" are used.
>
>The "bodega" in NYC first turned up in the first quarter of the 19th century
>refering to grocery stores in the Puerto Rican barrios. I am not sure whether
>that is the most common term on the island though. I do know that in the
>Dominican Republic the most common word is "colmado". I suspect that the word
>"bodega" is the most common one in Cuban Spanish, though. My Cuban father used
>to ask me and my South Texas friends to go the "bodega" and pick up some
>whatever. My friends would invariably ask why we had to go the storage.
>
>At any rate, in the historical development of New York's barrio the "bodega"
>is reported to have played a crucial role in defining the parameters and
>extension of the community. Sanchez Korrol argues that "it was precisely in
>the proliferation of commercial and professional establishments - small
>businesses, bodegas, botanicas, restaurants and boarding houses - that the
>physical characteristics of the Puerto Rican community were most sharply
>defined" (Virginia Sanchez-Korrol _From Colonia to Community_ 2nd ed.
>Berkeley: UC Press, 1994, p. 62. See also all of Chapter 3 for a more
>extensive discussion). Marqueta, on the other hand, was used in the early days
>of the Puerto Rican community to refer to an outdoor market where fresh fruits
>and vegetables were sold. This is the same meaning that we give to "mercado"
>in South Texas. Additionally, I would argue that "bodega" made its way into
>the NYC lexicon largely due to social significance that it has in the barrio.
>Really, a bodega was much more than a simple grocery store, it was place for
>gossiping, playing dominos, etc. It had become a social institution and a
>symbol of the Puerto Rican community. Ortiz Cofer makes this clear in her
>childhood memories of "la bodega". "... my mother insisted that she could cook
>only with products whose labels she could read, and so, during the week, I
>accompanied her and my little brother to La Bodega - a hole in the wall
>grocery store accross the street from El Building ... We would linger at La
>bodega, for it was there that mother breathed best, taking in the familiar
>aromas of the foods she knew from Mama's kitchen, and it was also there that
>she got to speak to the other women of El Building" (Judith Ortiz Cofer,
>Silent Dancing). 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.
>
>Glenn
>
>_______________________
>Glenn Martinez
>Visiting Instructor of Spanish/Kenyon Dissertation Fellow
>Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
>Kenyon College
>Gambier, OH 43022
>
>
>
> >
> >Question then, does bodega make it into the New York's lexicon and the
> >pages of the New York Times because the majority of Spanish-speaking
> >immigrants are from Peru and Venezuela (Central America)? I would guess,
> >therefore, that bodega is not the Mexican word for "grocer's" or that's
> >what we'd call it in Texas.
> >
> >Has there ever been a study or comparison of what things are called in
> >different regions due to immigrant influence?
> >
> >Kathleen E. Miller
> >Research Assistant to William Safire
> >The New York Times