The Spanish term “bodega,” dating back to the 1840s, originally referred to wine cellars, the hull of ships, and warehouses. Today in the United States, the word “bodega” refers to New York’s owner-operated convenience stores, often run by Yemeni and Latino immigrants. Francisco Marte, founder and president of the Bodega and Small Business Association, told Untapped New York that the bodega is an “extension of the home.”
The distinction between a corner store and a bodega is difficult to explain. Marte, though, knows exactly what sets a bodega apart from any other store: If customers do not have money for food or diapers, the bodeguero will find a way for them to leave the store with those items; if a customer is stressed out, the bodeguero is there to listen; and if a customer is new to the city, a bodega is a place to create new relationships. That’s a bodega. Always there, always open, and always sympathetic to those in need.
The New York bodega, a dynamic embodiment of the American dream, has a complex history, traversing centuries and borders. Despite its status as an iconic and essential New York institution, bodegas have often faced violence when trying to accomplish their mission to serve the city. Here is the story of the New York City bodega’s past, present, and future.
The origins of the New York City Bodega
In 1902, The Sun reported that New York City would soon have its first bodega, which the paper described as a “barroom” originating from Spain. The demand for such a place arose as a result of American travel to Europe. The modern New York City bodega, though, is not a bar, nor is it European. The modern bodega tradition finds its origins in a mix of New York, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Yemeni, and other immigrant cultures. More recently, Immigrants from Egypt, Korea, the Philippines, and more have carried on the bodega tradition as well.
The Puerto Rican Bodega
In 1917, the Jones Act gave Puerto Ricans American citizenship, facilitating the movement of Puerto Ricans to metropolitan areas in the continental United States. Some historians dubbed Puerto Rican settlements in New York City colonias. It was in these concentrated Puerto Rican immigrant communities that the bodega first emerged as the lunch joint for hungry factory workers.
Colonias, also known as barrios, developed wherever Puerto Rican immigrants could find work — typically the tobacco and rope manufacturing industries provided jobs in New York City. With the establishment of Puerto Rican communities in New York, the demand for local businesses, mostly food-centered establishments, rose in the city. According to some accounts, the first Puerto Rican bodegas emerged in the 1920s on Franklin Avenue in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn where the American Manufacturing Company attracted a Puerto Rican population.