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

NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) — 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 2-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 at a time when they're often only brought up on the news in the context of immigration crackdowns, 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 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.

In 2023, an artist on Garcia’s label — DannyLux — was invited to perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, a semiprivate music series filmed in the middle of the radio station’s bustling Washington, D.C., bureau, and then distributed to a massive following on YouTube. It was then that Garcia realized the special appeal of an unconventional, acoustic setup.

With the capital his label got from producing DannyLux's music, Garcia opened the store in 2024 with his sister and father. And eventually, he used his experience with the Tiny Desk Concerts at the store too, merging the two otherwise disparate aspects of his life.

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.

Luna Luna, which has earned recognition from outlets like Billboard and Rolling Stone, was one of three bands performing at the late April show. It was a vastly different from the other stops on their sprawling United States tour.

Large piñatas hung from the ceiling above the group as they performed — a vastly different ambiance from the stages and lights that normally set the scene for Luna Luna’s hypnotic, indie-pop ballads. The performance was illuminated with the fluorescent grocery-store lighting, which customers used to shop in the background as Luna Luna sang in both Spanish and English.

The unconventional platform was part of the appeal for lead singer Kavvi Gonzalez, along with many in the series’ rapidly growing fanbase, for whom the unique venue evokes a kind of nostalgia.

“I actually grew up shopping at stores like this, so to be able to play in one is kind of crazy,” said Gonzalez, who was born in Colombia and moved to Texas when he was 6.

The charm is in the surprising romance of the mundane, Gonzalez said.

“To see people just actually be shopping around and just living regular life while we’re doing a performance here, you know, it’s cool. It’s combining real life and music culture,” Gonzalez said.

A woman shops while a band plays in the background in New Castle, Del., on Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau)

Luna Luna band members Kevin Gonzalez and Caleb Powers perform in the produce section of Fiesta Fresh Market in New Castle, Del., on Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau)

Singer Jackson Laird, right, performs with bandmates Gabriel Schauf and Tanner Kelley in the produce section of Fiesta Fresh Market in New Castle, Del., on Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau)

A guitarist performs in the produce section of Fiesta Fresh Market in New Castle, Del., on Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau)

Bilingual alternative pop band Luna Luna performs in the produce section of Fiesta Fresh Market in New Castle, Del., on Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Thousands of people rallied Saturday in the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement to mobilize a new voting rights era as conservative states dismantle congressional districts that helped secure Black political representation.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called Montgomery “sacred soil” in the fight for civil rights.

“If we in our generation do not now do our duty, we will lose the gains and the rights and the liberties that our ancestors afforded us,” Booker said.

The crowd was led in chants of “we won’t go back” and “we fight.”

“We are not going down without a fight. We are not going down to Jim Crow maps,” Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case said.

A crowd of thousands gathered in front of the city’s historic Alabama Capitol, the place where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke in 1965 at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. The stage, set in front of the Capitol, was flanked from behind by statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and civil rights icon Rosa Parks — dueling tributes erected nearly 90 years apart.

Speakers said the spot was once the temple of the confederacy and became holy ground of the civil rights movement.

Some in the crowd said the effort to redraw lines has echoes of the past.

“We lived through the “60s. It takes you back. When you think that Alabama’s moving forward, it takes two steps back,” said Camellia A Hooks, 70, of Montgomery, Alabama.

The rally began in Selma, where a violent clash between law enforcement and voting rights activists in 1965 galvanized support for passage of the Voting Rights Act. It then moved to the state Capitol, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “How Long, Not Long” speech that same year.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Louisiana hollowed out voting rights law that was already weakened by a separate decision in 2013 and then narrowed further over the years. That helped clear the way for stricter voter ID laws, registration restrictions, and limits on early voting and polling place changes, including in states that once needed federal preclearance before they could change voting laws because of their historical discrimination against Black voters.

Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement are alarmed by the speed of the rollbacks, noting that protections won through generations of sacrifice have been weakened in little more than a decade.

Kirk Carrington, 75, was a teen in 1965 when law enforcement officers attacked marchers in Selma on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” A white man on a horse wielding a stick chased Carrington through the streets.

“It’s really just appalling to me and all the young people that marched during the ’60s, fought hard to get voting rights, equal rights and civil rights,” Carrington said. “It’s sad that it’s continuing after 60-plus-odd years that we are still fighting for the same thing we fought for back then.”

Montgomery is home to one of the congressional districts that is being altered in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

A federal court in 2023 redrew Alabama's 2nd Congressional District after ruling that the state intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents, who make up about 27% of its population. The court said there should be a district where Black people are a majority or near-majority and have an opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.

But the Supreme Court cleared the way for a different map that could let the GOP reclaim the seat. While the matter remains under litigation, the state plans special primaries Aug. 11 under the new map.

Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who won election in the district in 2024, said the dispute is not about him but rather people's opportunity to have representation.

“When Republicans are literally turning back the clock on what representation, what the faces of representation, look like, what the opportunities, legitimate opportunities for representation look like across this country, then I think it starts to resonate with people in a little bit of a different way,” Figures said.

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, a Republican, said the Louisiana ruling provided an opportunity to revisit a map that was forced on the state by the federal court.

“People tend to forget what happened. When this thing went to court, the Republican Party had that seat, congressional seat two,” Ledbetter said last week. “There’s been a push through the courts to try to overtake some of these red state seats, and that’s certainly what happened in that one.”

Evan Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case, said there is grief over the implosion of the Voting Rights Act but it is crucial that people recommit to the fight.

“We have to accept that this is the new reality, whether we like it or not,” Milligan said. “We don’t have to accept that this will be the reality for the next 10 years or two years or forever.”

A man sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The State capitol is seen during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A protestor holds a sign of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A man sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A protestor holds a sign of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

U.S. Sen Corey Booker, D-NY., has his photo taken during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

People gather during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

U.S. Sen Corey Booker, D-NY., has his photo taken during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Aaron McGuire sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)