A Latino grocery store in Delaware turns its produce aisle into a music stage

A neat stack of 79-cent bananas and rows of colorful fruit flanked the bilingual alternative pop band Luna Luna as they performed for a small audience at a Latino grocery store in northern Delaware. The show was part of the monthly Mercadito sessions put on by the Fiesta Fresh Market, a family-owned store in the Philadelphia metro-area city of New Castle, far away from the massive music industry hubs typically associated with artistic opportunity and exposure. But the excitement of new music, paired with the colorful, unassuming stage, has rapidly engaged an international following for the two-year-old store—with up-and-coming bands traveling from far away to perform, and tens of thousands tuning in online. Jose Luis Aguilar Garcia, one of the store's owners, hopes the series highlights the persistence of joy and creativity in Latino communities, he said. Jose Luis Aguilar Garcia has worked with both food and music for most of his life. Born in Mexico, Garcia grew up in an apartment adjacent to where he would eventually open Fiesta Fresh Market. Garcia has worked at farmers' markets and grocery stores since he was a teenager, and ran a photography and videography company that also produced regional Mexican music like mariachi, corridos tumbados, and banda. "We did a lot of quinceañeras, weddings, that sort of thing. Music was always like something I wanted to do as a passion project, but especially here in Delaware, there's really no industry for that," Garcia said. Garcia initially hoped the shows would attract business, but it was hard to sell local artists on performing in such a quirky context, Garcia said. But soon, the premise caught on. All of the acts in an April show had heard about the small store on social media before they were asked to perform. While the shows initially featured almost exclusively the Spanish-language music that Garcia produced with his label, the Mercadito sessions now showcase a broad range of artists and genres. "I found that super interesting that no matter who the artist was that was playing, people would gather to hear," Garcia said. This article was provided by The Associated Press.