Hi {{first_name | friend}},

Univision’s music awards show Premio Lo Nuestro airs tonight. It’s had me thinking about the grip these shows had on me as a kid, and about the chokehold they no longer have. I can’t tell if it’s due to the decline of linear TV or the result of being a first-generation Mexican American who inevitably consumes more English-language media as he gets older. Or both. Do you relate? Anyway, on to today’s newsletter. 

Like In The Hyphen’s YouTube channel, every newsletter explores the hyphen between two things, two issues, two entities. In this newsletter, I’m exploring the hyphen between:

- Fernando

If you’re not familiar, NPR puts on a concert series called Tiny Desk Concerts, where big names like Billie Eilish and Mac Miller perform a live, stripped-down set by a desk (it’s a normal-sized office desk) in the public radio company’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Well, consider me tickled when I came across this video of regional Mexican artist Julio Caesar  performing what looked like a Tiny Desk concert but in a supermercado. In Delaware of all places.

One commenter called it a “tiny tiendita concert.” And that’s exactly what it is. A series where artists stop by a small Hispanic grocery store in New Castle, Delaware, to record a set.

“I was not very familiar with what Tiny Desk was until not that long ago,” said José Luis Aguilar García, who co-owns Fiesta Fresh Market & Carniceria with his dad.

Aguilar García, who grew up in Delaware, first heard about Tiny Desk shows when he got to see one live.

“We ended up doing Tiny Desk in 2023 with DannyLux, and I didn't realize it was in Washington, D.C., and very close to where we're at."

Yes, he’s talking about that DannyLux, the 21-year-old Latin Grammy-nominated singer. Through his label, VPS Music, Aguilar García has helped produce some of DannyLux’s music. 

So how does the grocery business enter Aguilar García’s life?

“[My family] has just kind of been in the industry since I was seven when we came here from Mexico,” Aguilar García said. “My dad was already working at a local farmers market, kind of doing general-managing of a store without having the title.”

Aguilar García worked at that grocery store through high school before diving into music after graduating. In 2024, he and his dad decided to open their own grocery store in New Castle, a small town about 35 miles south of Philadelphia. The store sits directly behind the first apartments the Aguilar García family lived in when they arrived from Mexico.

The idea to do concerts in the grocery store came when one of VPS Music’s artists Dariell Cano was passing through the area.

“I told him to put one of the workers' vests on and pretend like music didn't work out and he was working at the grocery store now,” Aguilar García said. “That's when it clicked. I was like, what if we actually start doing live recordings here?”

They’ve since transformed into full-on monthly shows with multiple artists on the grocery store floor that are branded as “Mercadito Concerts,” like this one featuring Rafael Salaz, Alta Elegancia, Ilusión and Operativo JT:

I asked if the concerts have helped boost sales for the store.

“Not really,” he said. “My dad fights me fighting about it because he’s like, ‘We should be doing other sorts of marketing.’” 

But Aguilar García likes music too much. He sees the concerts as a long-term play.

“In the future, my goal is to maybe get brands to start sponsoring us,” he said. “That's gonna keep funding obviously the grocery store, but also the crew behind it that helps record the videos.”

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This is one of my favorite mini-docs I’ve made to date: MXKA (pronounced mocha) is a Blaxican artist from San Leandro, California, who is fusing the sounds of corridos tumbados with R&B. The story explores her music and explains why Los Angeles, specifically, has so many Blaxicans.

I post a mini-doc every two weeks on my YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss the next one.

The power of the tortilla: A woman in California is using tortillas to help her community. Since 2021, Sandy Wall, who works full-time in the entertainment industry, has been making tortillas on the side through her nonprofit, Pueblita, donating the proceeds to different organizations. This Saturday, she’s hosting a 5K fundraiser in Long Beach, California, to celebrate the organization’s 5-year anniversary. Watch my interview with founder of Pueblita here.

Is it the end of the “Latino vote”? The reliably Democratic voter bloc that swung to help President Donald Trump win in 2024 has fragmented into three distinct segments, according to Axios.

The Hispanic Football Hall of Fame announced its inaugural inductees. The Hall of Fame was created to serve as “a living tribute to the rich history, talent and cultural impact of Hispanic people who have shaped the game of football,” according to the NFL. You can see the inaugural class here.

At least 28 of Bad Bunny’s songs have hit a billion streams on Spotify. To celebrate, Spotify announced him as the newest headliner of its Billions Club Live series. Bad Bunny will give a special show in the Tokyo area on March 7. It’s the first one to be held in Asia. Ed Sheeran did his in Dublin and Miley Cyrus did hers in Paris. I sense an Asian Conejo Malo fans mini-doc in my future (once the In The Hyphen travel budget allows, of course).

Parents of a Parkland school shooting victim will launch an AI podcast hosted by their late son. Joaquin “Guac” Oliver was killed in the 2018 Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead. Now an AI version of him will be hosting “Guac’s Going On,” a podcast designed to talk about gun violence and fight for changes in legislation, Joaquin’s dad, Manuel Oliver, said. [WPEC CBS 12]

The backstory behind a new museum exhibit: In 2019, students from Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy, a high school in Chicago, protested a local museum for not having more representation of Latino history in the Windy City. Fast-forward 7 years, and an exhibit is now here. “Aquí en Chicago” at the Chicago History Museum tells the stories of the “communities that have maintained a persistent cultural presence and flourished” in Chicago. [NPR]

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This section is a random musing from the week that is not related to my work as a journalist. 

This week’s rant: The word “tidy” has got to go. My friend texted me the other day, saying she was gonna “tidy up” her place. What does that mean? You’re either cleaning or you’re not. She explained to me that tidying up is just putting things back in their place. That’s cleaning, isn’t it?