photo by Adrian Hernandez
By Athena Ponushis
Diana Rodriguez was a year old when her father opened his restaurant at the Moore Street Market. As her “Papi” was cooking, she was sleeping under the counter at Ramonita’s, the name chosen to flatter her mother.
Now, at age 23, her dark eyes behind sleek-framed glasses, Diana conjures hide ’n seek memories, games of tag, just running and running and running around the indoor market with after-school imagination.
Local politicians have referred to La Marqueta as the “heart of Latino culture” and “the living breath” of Williamsburg’s Hispanic community. A New York Times headline once called the market, “A Caribbean Corner in Brooklyn.” But when Diana thinks of her second home, her playground, washing restaurant dishes, she says it all in one word—big.
“The market’s so big, it’s just so big,” Diana reiterated. “As the years go by, I see growth and more growth. I’ve seen it grow before my eyes, because it’s been growing with me.”
When Diana says big, she thinks of what the market means to the old-timers who come every morning to drink their café con leche and play dominoes. When she says growth, she pictures the Manhattan transplants who come to buy racy hot sauce and cannon-ball-size avocados. And when she contemplates her future, the market looms large; she may not live in the Dominican Republic, but the market will not allow her to forget her culture.
The city, however, held the success of the market against a different measure—economics. In 2007, the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) discussed closing the market and converting the space into affordable housing, mainly because the market was running on a deficit as vendors dwindled. Gerry Esposito, district manager of the local community board, read about the potential closure in the Daily News and found the motives of the city arguable. While the once-thriving, nearly 70-year-old market was down to only 15 vendors, Esposito did not see the city searching to fill the vacancies, but rather turning away inquiring renters.
“It was somewhat premeditated murder,” said Esposito, who has served as district manager for 23 years. “As a city employee, it was embarrassing for me to see what the city was trying to do.”
Esposito wrote a proposal to the NYC Department of Transportation, requesting funding through their open plaza program. He wrote the proposal for the market vendors and under their names. “I’ve learned the DOT has approved the proposal but they have not made the announcement yet,” said Esposito, who envisions the funding opening the market entrance and spilling business over to the sidewalk on the Humboldt side. “Capital improvement will make it harder in the future for the city to say, whoa, maybe we should take a second look at closing it down again.”
As for the present, the NYCEDC announced a five-year lease agreement in January, turning the market operations over to the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation and ensuring locals like Vilma Feliciano can keep buying homemade pasteles from La Placita Produce, a market stand that sells out of fresh cilantro every day. “I’m from Puerto Rico but I learned to cook Puerto Rican food at the market,” said Feliciano, who highly recommends the ox tail at Ramonita’s Restaurant. “Ox tail with white rice, oh, you’ll fall asleep.”
The chef behind the ox tail, Virgilio Rodriguez, remembers his little girl sleeping underneath his counter—the counter where he has served hot alcapurrias and cuchifrito for over 20 years—the counter that has fed his five children and made possible the education of his daughter Diana, the youngest and the first in the family to graduate college. “I think this is the American dream,” said Virgilio, president of the Moore Street Merchants Association and a man who has experienced just how fluid dreams can be. Virgilio remembers months of the market’s uncertainty when “we cry … we never sleep … all our heads spinning.”
Hearing the worries of Virgilio and the vendors beside him, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez secured $250,000 in federal funds. The funding will allow the Project for Public Spaces to explore how best to solidify the sustainability of the market and quell the anxieties of 40-something market employees.
Velasquez has called La Marqueta a “cultural institution,” an “economic engine,” and a “local treasure.” But more than what she sees, the federally-funded studies are meant to look at the history, to look at the neighborhood and examine what the market could be.
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