A s a born-and-bred kid from the Bronx, the bodega was like the United Nations to me. Bodegas are central locations, landmarks, meeting grounds. You know how the old-school Westerns got the general store? The bodega is like that.
Whether you call it the papi store, ahki store, bodega, or corner store, it signifies the same thing. The bodega is owned by real people who live in your building, across the street, or down the block. It was cultural representation before representation was the thing. It’s also a generational thing, ’cause you’ll see a grandfather pass a bodega down to his son, who passes it down to his son. It’s a family business that stays in the family. A lot of them are run by immigrants. That’s their lifeline.
You hear the bodega before you walk in. It’s a preservation of music and language. If your hood ain’t got a rec center, the bodega [serves as that]. My previous work, the Bodega Boys podcast, was capturing that essence — we’re just chopping it up at the bodega, hanging out, drinking. Talking shit about who the Yankees got in their lineup, what the Knicks are about to do in the playoffs. The TV might be playing some news, and you might get into a conversation about geopolitics with somebody that’s not a news anchor, not a media personality, just a regular person.
When you walk into the bodega, there are pictures behind the plexiglass of the first dollar made in the store, signed by whoever paid it. There are pictures of the family, and it tells a story. You’ll see the owner, you’ll see their kids. You’ll see them in their home country. That picture is to show you, “With this money that I made in this bodega, I was able to send money back home.”
I’ve seen people meet in bodegas and end up having kids. I’ve seen birth announcements, baby pictures, and wedding invitations posted up on that plexiglass. It’s like a community board. It’s a satellite for the community.
There’s an exchange of good energy and love that you can’t replicate with a 7-Eleven. The bodega owner depends on us, and we depend on them. It’s a symbiotic relationship. You take care of us, we take care of you.
Every bodega has a cat. The bodega cat has become a symbol of the bodega because of its ingenuity. It’s going to take care of everything, and it’s going to make sure that there ain’t no mice over here. The cat is holding it down. He’s the bouncer.
A lot of the time, bodegas are in the middle of a food desert. There’s no other way to get produce. My mom was cooking from scratch. Everything that she got — cilantro, onions, potatoes, platanos — everything was from the bodega. It’s like a hood ecosystem. There’s so much going on in there that you depend on.
In this climate, with ICE, immigration crackdowns, and the harassment that’s going on, it’s crazy, because a bodega is all things to the neighborhood. These bodega owners, they might be from somewhere else, but they’re just as American as anybody else. They’re working and helping their community. Documented or undocumented, whoever’s behind the counter, they’re grinding. They’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They’re not here bullshitting, they’re not scamming. They’re not doing any of that.
America would be swaggerless without the bodega. Even if you’re not Latino, whatever the ethnicity of the bodega owner is, there’s a cultural exchange. You walk in and hear different music than you’re used to, or hear people speaking a different language, or see people preparing traditional food from their home country. It’s multicultural. You can have somebody that’s Black American, Jamaican, Haitian, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Lebanese, Syrian, whatever. Every New Yorker knows a curse word in a different language because of a bodega.
The further we get into AI, automation, and all this computerized shit, there’s something so beautiful about walking into a bodega and seeing human beings cleaning the grill, cooking, stocking the shelves, and counting the money. There’s no artificial intelligence in there. It’s just American intelligence in that bitch. That’s the real AI.
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