The Last Bodega in Jersey, Vol. 1 by Abel Veloz (Paperback)

Fiction - Short Stories - Urban and Street Lit

Published: 5/29/2023

In a rapidly gentrifying Jersey City, NJ, Stroberi aka Pelao Jr, the young owner of the last bodega in Jersey, has a decision to make by end of day: sell the family business or continue serving the remaining community in need. But when a local news station stops by to cover, “The Last Bodega in Jersey,” his internal decision becomes a spectacle as the vecindario shows up one after another reminding him of how wild, random, & hilarious—yet beautifully deserving & precious—the community can be.

Sell the store for $250,000 or remain open? It’s Stroberi’s choice to make.

This book is a collection of Latinx short stories, chisme, and more that take place in and around the bodega—the ghetto lighthouse of community. In Volume I, author Abel Veloz attempts to remind the vecindario, to include those forced out, that our communities are worth cherishing and holding on to.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Abel Veloz, That one primo that you don't quite know how you're related to. A First-Generation Dominican-American hailing from Hudson County, NJ. When he writes, he wants you to feel like you're at a summer barbeque, family reunion, or chismeando with fulano at the bodega. Same Spanglish, same people, nothing white-washed.

He previously worked in Military Intelligence (Army Veteran), holds a MSc in Global Affairs from Rutgers University, and speaks Mandarin.

Oh, and he lovvvvvvves a good chisme. (Who doesn't?)