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The Ranch Market
Experience
Aloysius Canete
Nothing was more exciting than going to the Phoenix Ranch
Market on my Feb 3, fieldwork in South Phoenix. It was not
just a grocery store that one usually experienced when
shopping at a local Safeway or Fry’s. It was a store with a
different character and an atmosphere far removed from that
of most grocery stores I have been to here in Phoenix. Even
while I was still at the parking lot looking at the store
from a distance, I could already sense its identity, charm
and appeal something that had a semblance of an outdoor
mercado in a plaza in the Philippines where I come
from. |
Inside the
store, I could right away notice its festive mood as people bustled
about looking for stuffs to buy while a Mexican song was played over
a loud speaker. As I was strolling in the store, I could hear store
employees cheerfully answering questions from shoppers in Spanish.
There was never an instance where my eyes got so tired from looking
at aisle after aisle of colorful produce from vegetables to tropical
fruits to a variety of Mexican spices, all marked with bilingual
tags. The walls were peppered with bilingual advertisements like
murals painted on the streets of the mission district in downtown
San Francisco. Stalls selling all sorts of products were
ubiquitous, too.
But
nothing was more colorful than the Panaderia. Not
only the fragrance of the hot, fresh bread was very
inviting; an assortment of colorful cakes embellished with
all sorts of designs was also hard for my eyes to resist. I
could not help, but just stared at them incessantly like
lovers glued to each other’s eyes, unconcerned about the
world around them. But of course the experience would not
be complete without a taste of the food available at La
Cocina. La Cocina (or “the kitchen”) displayed an
assortment of different things from chicken tacos to
enchilladas, from carne asada to chorizo and an
endless list of dishes. I finally got my order, and guess
what? It was chicarron with rice, beans and a bunch
of tortillas. Hmm. I could not wait to eat my food, as my
plate was spewing out the aroma of a Mexican dish. |
The
Phoenix Ranch Market was indeed more than just a shopping
store. It was a place where shoppers and employees alike
created a sense of community. While it is true that store
owners have appropriated Latino space to create an identity
that shoppers can identify with, the way in which shoppers
and employees use this space also forms and informs the
identity of Ranch Market. As James Rojas aptly puts it in
his article “The Latino Use of Urban Space in East Los
Angeles”, “[t]he identity of place is created not only by
the physical forms but by the way [Mexicano residents of
East L.A.] use exterior space around their homes and
businesses” (1999:13; my emphasis). In this context, it is
in/through the use of the exterior space in and around Ranch
Market that the identity of the place is constituted.
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24 March 2006 |