Do you live in New York? Do you have a bodega (a corner, grocery store) on your street? If you go outside and spin around once, how many bodegas did you just look at? My answers are yes, yes, and at least 3.  A bodega is an essential piece of infrastructure to the neighborhoods it resides in. You can snacks, food essentials, toiletries, and even cat food for a fairly low price. Depending on your local store, it might even come with it’s own unique amenities. The store owner’s wife makes pastelillos and other frituras to sell during the day. It’s also the only one near me that has a grill so I can get my baconeggandcheese fix (yes it’s one word, don’t argue with me).

Well why does any of that matter. To be fair, it doesn’t, at least not for what I’m writing about next, I just needed a way to bait you into reading this far. As I was being as careful possible to fall down the many rabbit holes of information that exist online when I was writing my last blog post, I came across a really interesting video that discussed the history of a small, Chinese community that spawned in Mississippi  around the early 1900s. I was stunned to find out how much of an impact this community had during the high times of segregation as a group that wasn’t identified as black or white and how they navigated all of those (in)visible boundaries. Watching a Chinese woman speak with a southern drawl was also pretty mind bending. I’m glad I found this.

And here is a later episode in this miniseries that covers the history and causes of the waves of immigration from China.