Lunch and Learn: "Bodega Stories" by Amaris Castillo

Co-presented with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights

This fall, grab your favorite lunch at noon and tune in to virtual conversations with the Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System on topics from repairing the effects of racial injustice to fighting for equitable access to recovering from exile and loss. Let’s learn together!

Lunch and Learn returns with special guest Amaris Castillo in conversation with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George's County Memorial Library System discussing her book, "Bodega Stories."

Registration not required. Click on the YouTube video linked below to stream the program live or watch the recording later.

About the Book: 

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.

About the author: 

Amaris Castillo is a Brooklyn native and daughter of Dominican immigrants. A former newspaper reporter, her work has appeared in the New York Times, Lowell Sun, Bradenton Herald, and elsewhere. Amaris' creative writing has appeared in several anthologies and, in her free time, she tries to be a good literary citizen. She is the lead book reviewer for the Dominican Writers Association and a volunteer contributor to Latinx in Publishing. She currently works at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and lives in Florida with her family. "Bodega Stories" is her debut.