Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Melo’s Market a Popular Shopping and Hangout Spot for Dominicans


By Abe Scherzer

It’s always busy at the cash register at Melo’s Market. Kids weigh whether to buy Snickers or Jaw Breakers, and adults scratch out lottery tickets or gossip about baseball. No one is in any hurry to leave. And if it seems like they’re all family, that’s because they are – if not by blood by nationality.


Angel Cronosco works at Melo’s with his aunt, who owns the business. Cronosco says the market has served the neighborhood’s large Dominican population for over 30 years.

“Over in Brookline, you have to have products white people will buy,” says Cronosoco, 21. “Here, you’ve got to have products for Dominicans.”

Dominicans were the second most populous Latino group in Massachusetts with 74,499 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau data in 2004. Boston had the fourth most Dominicans of any metropolitan area in the country with 39,063 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau data in 2000. U.S. Census Bureau data from 2000 also shows that 23 percent of people in Jamaica Plain are Hispanic.

Melo’s employees are proud of their roots. Dominican pesos are proudly taped on the cashier’s desk. Raggaeton music blares from a boom box to which Angel’s aunt unabashedly gyrates behind the cashier’s desk.

There are over-ripe bananas on the shelves. The aisles are full of varieties of cornmeal, beans and hot sauce. A back wall is lined with candles adorned with the image of Christ.

Cronosco describes his journey from his native Santiago.

“Me and my four brothers came to Jamaica Plain when I was 9 years old,” he says.

Cronosco and his brothers legally immigrated to the United States after his parents and their siblings immigrated illegally.

“Some went through Mexico, others took boats over.”

Cronosco says he feels fortunate to be an U.S. citizen, and to be able to expand his family in the United States.

“Because of the opportunity our older generation gave us, me and my brother’s kids will be born American citizens,” Cronosco says. “It’s all about looking for the American dream.”

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