'To unknowing passersby, it's a convenience store. To New York City dwellers, it's a bodega. And for writer Xochitl Gonzalez, it's a beauty supply store, runway, and most significantly, a place to connect with her community and culture.'
. By our local beauty standards, the supermodels in magazines had nothing on them. Because there was no smoky eye or high-fashion hairdo that amplified natural beauty theOf course, there were girls in every neighborhood who were good with makeup. Usually the girls whose moms made extra cash selling Skin So Soft and other Avon products, or the ones who went crazy in the Wet n Wild section of the local Duane Reade and would use their little siblings as guinea pigs.
New Yorkers love their bodegas, even if they aren't completely in agreement about what differentiates these magical places from your regular deli. But, in communities of color, and Latinx neighborhoods especially, bodegas are hives of neighborhood activity. This is largely because a true bodega serves a multitude of purposes: household convenience store, to-go eatery, coffee shop, low-stakes casino, ethnic grocery, dive bar, religious-supplies provider, and, above all, community center.
backgrounds, despite the gentrification she believes has changed the fabric of the neighborhood. Through it all, she says, the bodega has remained a constant. "My beauty supply [store], that I usually go to for everything, picks and chooses when they want to close," Donovan says. "But the bodega is usually 24 hours, so if I ever need anything, they're always there." —J.J.
Small in size, the bodega was for the new migrant a supermarket for the soul. The deli counter offered cut meats, but, sometimes, prepared dishes from "home." The aisles stocked groceries, but also votive candles, Agua de Florida, medicine-cabinet staples, cleaning supplies, and even, sometimes, a record section ofit carried everything one needed to keep a good Puerto Rican home in this new place. And it offered community.
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