Story thread · 2 reports / 1 sources

A local author’s love letter to her family’s St. Petersburg bodega

tampabay.com · 6dShare

Spanish rings out from every corner of the Orlando Latin Market in St. Petersburg: from Dominicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and the greater Latin diaspora that own, work in and patronize the bodega. It’s the setting for “Bodega Stories,” Tampa-based journalist, author and photographer Amaris Castillo’s creative non-fiction debut featuring the market as the central character. The book contains over 60 vignettes organized by place in and around the store. Castillo vividly embodies her parents’ journey as immigrants from the Dominican Republic and as bodegueros (shopkeepers). She observes a local cast of characters in the bodega’s orbit — some looking for ingredients to cook sancocho (a Caribbean comfort food stew), others gathering the necessities for Haitian freedom soup joumo. Castillo is coming to St. Petersburg tonight for her book’s launch at Tombolo Books. The event is sold out. The Orlando Latin Market differentiates itself from an American convenience store in that you’ll f

First report: My Favorite Florida: Amaris Castillo loves the Latin flavor of her childhood — tampabay.com, 6d