Project Hail Mary
They Call You Back: A Lost History, A Search, A Memoir

Bodega Stories

A bodega is much more than a neighborhood grocery store-it’s a lifeline to community and culture. In BODEGA STORIES, Amaris Castillo takes readers inside Orlando Latin Market, a bodega owned and operated by her parents in St. Petersburg, Florida, to reveal a thriving local hub that bridges generations, languages, and traditions.

Meet the regulars: Castillo’s glamorous Tía Margarita, who has worked part-time at the bodega for years; longtime cook Alberto, who arrives early to prepare the store’s rice, beans, empanadas, and croquetas; Chico, the owner of the barbershop next door; and Esther, who visits after church every Sunday for her crispy chicharrones. Through captivating and charming true stories of visitors who come looking for products from Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Cuba, and many other countries, readers get a glimpse into the lives of employees and customers as they navigate matters of immigration, love, history, food, and identity.

Interwoven are snapshots of daily life, like a bulletin board outside the store where local residents post apartments for rent, messages through the bodega’s Facebook page asking for hard-to-find items, and photos from the past and present. Including Castillo’s own family’s story from the Dominican Republic to New York to Florida, BODEGA STORIES is a portrait of finding home-between the cultures we inherit and the ones we embrace.

Publisher: University Press of Florida

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