Where do you go in New York when you need to buy eggs, milk, or a hot sandwich?
The bodega - a New York City institution.
Bodegas are literally everywhere in New York.
And, yes, while some people think of them as just grocery stores, you can actually get a whole lot more.
Bodegas are owned by different ethnic groups like Puerto Ricans, Yemenis, and Egyptians.
But the majority of bodegas are owned by one community in particular:
Dominican-Americans.
That business came
to fulfill that vacuum that was there
in the community.
Decades of immigration to the US have made New York's Dominican
diaspora the largest in the world outside of the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo.
This immigration to the US has gifted us with Cardi B, Junot Diaz, David Ortiz,
Oscar de la Renta and The Kid Mero - who actually has a podcast called The Bodega Boys.
Hey guys, I'm Daniel and today I want to explore how bodegas became so essential to New York life,
and also how the story of Dominican immigration to the US was instrumental in making it happen.
We spoke to Dorky Gomez, owner of Gold Glove Deli and Grocery.
She's owned her bodega in New York's Washington Heights
neighborhood for over a year and is known as a friendly face to customers.
In her bodega you can find a wide variety of products.
Gomez immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic, or D.R., in 2016.
Her older brother Carlos is a Major League Baseball player with the Tampa Bay Rays
and helped her establish her bodega.
Gomez and her family live in the building.
She works hard to support her husband and one-year-old son.
She says that even though Dominicans are far from their homeland, Bodegas help them feel
closer to one another.
Gomez's store looks like your typical bodega.
For starters there's a yellow and red sign
and you can usually buy "lotería", or a lottery ticket, at the counter.
You'll probably spot a candle, or a "veladora," painted with religious imagery somewhere in the shop.
And you'll probably see a bodega cat roaming around or asleep in the middle of the floor.
And in case you didn't know Bodega cats are a big deal.
There are Instagram and Twitter accounts and Facebook pages.
And the Bodega cats are so iconic that this New York lottery even used them in their commercial.
"Good night, Cyrus."
Super cute.
Ok so, while Dominicans like Gomez have dominated the bodega scene in New York for decades,
the bodega story didn’t exactly start with them.
Jewish delis that sold a whole range of products were a common scene across New York
starting in the 1920s, familiarizing the city with the concept of corner stores.
But it was in the 1940s and 50s that bodegas as we know them today first
became a part of New York's social fabric.
Initially, they were established by Puerto Ricans who moved to New York post-World War II
from the US island territory.
And that's something that Professor Ramona Hernandez argues is often lost in the conversation about bodegas.
Dominicans bought bodegas, the bodegas
from Puerto Rican owners who were leaving New York City as Dominicans were coming in.
So they were the ones working in the bodegas for Puerto Ricans when the transition happened.
During the same time, the D.R. was experiencing some
major political and economic upheaval.
For starters the Dominican Republic's
U.S.-backed dictator Rafael Trujillo was assassinated in 1961.
The assassination of Trujillo led to successive events interrelated in provoking the exodus of the Dominican people.
In 1962, the country voted for its first freely-elected president, Juan Bosch.
But his pro-Castro sentiments angered the US and parts of the Dominican government.
We need to remember,
the Cuban Revolution has just taken place a few years before.
It wasn't the best idea to
have another country in the Caribbean - or even in America Latina - with a similar system.
This led to a military coup and installation of the U.S.-backed Joaquin Balaguer as president.
But all of this upheaval created huge unrest prompting a civil war.
And then in 1965 the U.S. invaded.
It was Dominicans fighting Dominicans.
And now this is 1965 and the U.S. gets involved.
And now it becomes Dominicans fighting the U.S.
This turmoil left Dominicans seeking both safety and economic security
So, in an effort to win hearts and minds the U.S. government made it easier
for Dominicans to settle here.
Reasons for their massive migration have to do with the economic conditions of
the Dominican migrants in the Dominican Republic.
And for the Dominicans immigrating to the U.S., Bodegas made practical sense.
These are small businesses that allow Dominicans to have a job and at the same time
provide for their family.
And this, in many instances were created because they
were not able to find jobs and the larger economy, in the larger society.
But at the same time it also represents independence.
There were several waves of Dominican immigration since then.
Today, they are the fifth-largest Latino group in the country,
with more than 600,000 Dominicans in New York alone.
In New York, the Washington Heights neighborhood is the heart of the Dominican community.
In the past, this neighborhood was home to Irish immigrants and European Jews.
Then in the 60s and 70s Dominicans moved in.
They eventually became the majority, establishing one of the most recognized ethnic enclaves in New York.
Washington Heights has this immigrant tradition already.
So, the other thing is that Washington Heights is very close to El Barrio,
which is a settlement
and neighborhood populated at that time predominantly by Puerto Ricans.
And one thing that we know is that Dominicans move in the U.S. or tend to live in areas
where you also find Puerto Ricans.
Walking through Washington Heights you'll see Dominican restaurants and beauty salons.
You'll also hear bachata, merengue, and dembow.
And of course lots and lots of bodegas.
The bodega, it is this place that served at the same time as a social space
where Dominicans converge.
But Bodegas are much more than corner stores where you get your diapers or Platanos.
It's a place where the community gathers
to hang out and grab a bite.
Bodegas are also resource for
low-income and immigrant communities.
They often serve areas where you won't
find a supermarket. And bodegas often act as lifelines for many neighborhoods
in the city by letting customers who are short on cash pay for their items later.
Everybody tries to help everybody. People come and they're short or they need a
certain item and they don't have the money at the time then we'll do our best to accommodate them.
And this is why Bodegas are so special.
They allow for a relationship between the bodegueros
and their clients.
For bodega owner, Candido Arcángel, that means that his store is much more than that.
Arcángel houses homeless folks in the basement of his bodega and has done so for years.
Despite his bodega being zoned strictly for commercial use and not having the proper permits
to house individuals, he's taken it upon himself to provide shelter for them.
Arcangel immigrated from the D.R. to the U.S. in 1989.
He bought his bodega in 1995 and began taking in homeless people shortly after.
William Arroyo has lived in the basement of Arcangel’s bodega for 5 years.
And sure, Bodegas can be profitable but they also struggle with challenges that so many
businesses in big cities in the U.S. face today:
rising costs and gentrification.
In 2015, an estimated 75 bodegas shut down in New York because
of rent increases.
According to the Real Estate Board of New York, rents went
up over a third from 2004 to 2014.
And while that's a small number of the estimated
12,000 bodegas scattered across New York, it's hit the industry pretty hard -
not to mention the community in Washington Heights.
Gentrification has definitely
impacted the Dominican people.
Affluent people have discovered the great
location of Washington Heights. That's what it is. It is an incredible location.
Despite the difficulties bodegas have faced in recent years,
the community is still very proud of its heritage and contributions to the United States.
And Dominicans are much more than their bodegas.
Being able to contribute and produce in the society where we now live,
but more than that, preserved a legacy, a cultural legacy,
a historical legacy, right here and share it with the
rest of society.