Valentine's Day at Bargain Town

Love was in the air even at Bargain Town Flea market. Floral arrangements and heart shaped balloons in pinks, reds, and white adorned the entrance of the fruit market. The apparent festive mood were actually different set of vendors selling Valentine’s Day gifts at a lower cost than the market chains. The different arrangements varied, some had teddy bears, others included chocolates and the “deluxe” packages contained an assortment of everything. The gift bags were delicately together and some contained great detail.

For a hopeless romantic on a budget looking for a “get more for less” kind of gift should definitely visit Bargain Town. This weekend it seemed as though the flea market was in love. Many of the different shops were selling some sort of Valentine’s Day item. From your most basic gift to the gift of your fantasies (no pun intended).

Walking around through the long paths, I realized many immigrants adapt to new traditions and customs in order to survive. At first I wondered if many of the people selling Valentine’s Day gifts had even celebrated it before or if they even knew it existed prior to arriving to the United States.

The first person I asked was a man on a wheelchair, Francisco Perales, who sets up his shop on daily basis with a little help from one of his employees. Perales explained that in Cuba there is no such thing. The Cuban people are so caught up trying to provide a meal for the day to feed their families that romantic gifts is the last thing on their minds. He left Cuba 5 years ago through lottery system that offers Cubans to opportunity to leave the country, El Bon Bo.

Perales said it is difficult to get hired when you are handicapped and don’t speak English. His son who attends Homestead Senior High, assists him with the shop. They sell women’s clothing, shoes, and handbags. Today, they were a dozen selling baskets containing a heart shaped chocolate box, massage oil, a teddy bear holding a heart, artificial roses, and a balloon on a stick which read “I love you.” Perales told me his wife stayed up almost all night putting these together. They bought the necessary materials at BI’s and Walmart and “VOILA!” He explained it’s a lot of hard work but it pays the bills.

Another family I spoke to had a large table outside the fruit market, they were selling floral arrangements. Mercedes Suarez, and her two daughters had been working on them for the past two weeks. “We put these together because they sell. Last year we arranged floral arrangements too and they were easy to sell and cheap to put together,“ she said. Suarez was very brief and did not want to say much. Suarez said in Mexico there are many holidays they are adopting and Valentine’s Day is one of them. Although it isn’t as popular as it is here, couples often find a way to celebrate their love outside from their anniversaries.

My visit today wasn’t long, I walked around for about two hours before having to go to work. I did see familiar faces and the awkward feeling is starting to wear down. I learned that many of us see these vendors on the streets selling random stuff and don't realize how hard they worked nights before to be able to go to the streets to sell.