If you have ever visited Puerto Rico, it is likely that you came across one or more colmaditos in your walks around the island’s neighborhoods. Colmado (o colmaditos) is how we in the island refer to small grocery stores or markets. A colmado can carry everything that you can find in a bigger supermarket like produce, fruit and meats, but it is also known to carry traditional foods from the island: coffee, home-made candy and even souvenirs!
In the island next door, Dominican Republic, they have colmados too and for them, a colmado is a mix between a market and a bar, filled with all the necessary daily needs. As for us in Puerto Rico, their colmado is a great place to meet people and one often runs into someone one knows from the neighborhood. Especially at the end of the day, when most people drop in to buy what it is needed for dinner that evening.“So many of the memories of my childhood revolve around El Colmado. said Dania Santana, a Dominican, and expert in multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion and founder of Embracing Diversity Blog. “I remember being so proud when I learned to bargain for a better price or asked the colmadero for un chin, the extra all Dominicans are taught to request after being served anything. El Colmado is part of the normal rhythm of things there, is embedded in our culture. It is definitely a big part of life in the Dominican Republic, and a huge part of the endless memories of my life back there”.
For centuries, Spain has had colmados too, with the same purpose, a neighborhood shop, usually family-owned, and it offers traditional foods sometimes from different cultures and regions. Today, many of the colmados in Spain have closed down because they weren’t able to compete with larger groceries stores, but they are still some around and they are even considered historical heritage.
When I was growing up, there was a colmado near my house. It was called Colmado La Rambla, named after the neighborhood we lived at. My siblings and I used to walk to it quite often during the week, as a mandado (errand) for our mom. The owner, don Rafael, he knew everyone in the neighborhood and if we forgot our money, he would credit us, and we would pay later. Don Rafa believed in the honor system and it didn’t fail him. It was a great lesson for us children to see that adults trusted each other that way. I loved that he remembered everyone’s names, even his customer’s children. How often did we walked in the house, with the bag of groceries and said, “Mami, don Rafa nos dío crédito. No te olvides de pasar a pagar.” (Mama, we got credit for our groceries, don’t forget to stop by and pay,”) and she would smile.
In the area where I live now the closest place to a colmado is called #Grow and it is a quaint and small version of the bigger chain supermarket nearby, but the owner does make a point to meet everyone that walks in for groceries. She asks people to join a mailing list so they can keep in communication with their customers and to send specials and even recipes. El colmado doesn’t do that, and I am not sure they would have, but it is a sign of our times.
There are many cultural things I miss about my little island. At the top, I have to say is el colmado. It is one of my most dear cultural memories. A place I used to go with my siblings or my friends after school almost every day, for twelve years in a row! The place where we hung out back then and where we chose to spend our allowance money to buy a treat, dulces (candies), pastries, a souvenir.
Today, even our San Juan airport has a mock Colmado where those of us that come to visit family can take a few mementos back to our homes.
Do you have a “colmado” in your country? What is it called? Tell me about it in the comments. Would love to know.
Bai Bai for now,
Maritere
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