Centro Hispano’s El Mercadito blooms in its new space with its intentional design to make the weekly market more accessible.
El Mercadito, a weekly Latino market hosted at Central Hispano, 2403 Cypress Way, has been ongoing for a decade. The market, now in its 10th season, has been a popular mainstay on Madison’s south side as a place to capture culture and community. When Centro Hispano went over plans for its new building, it aimed to create a space more conducive to its efforts.
“It’s a wonderful way to connect with the community, and for the community to feel like they’re seen. They also can connect with Centro but more that we’re just visible,” said Karen Menéndez Coller, executive director of Centro Hispano.
Its previous location, just down the street from Centro Hispano’s new building, had challenges with limited space and safety. Parking was tied to the street and near the busy South Park Street. The space outside of the building was cramped with vendors table to table.
Now, the new location remedies those difficulties. El Mercadito is in the courtyard plaza away from its parking lot and the neighborhood area to accommodate cars. There is now space for more vendors, to shop around and come together as a community with ample space in the courtyard or connected, air-conditioned interior plaza.
El Mercadito has been tweaked over its 10 seasons. The market was initially founded to reach Latino communities with affordable, healthy, fresh foods to combat the area’s food desert. It progressively added more vendors like street food, clothing and jewelry, but its spirit stayed with the initial effort.
“I think it took many, many years to get it off the ground and develop the trust and the relationships and to have vendors that are committed to and believe in Centro as being there for them,” Coller said. “The community really wanted organic places to hang out, to feel like they were reminiscent of home.”
Trust was built over the years, but Centro Hispano shelved El Mercadito for two years between 2021-2023. When it returned, along with its plans for the new location, it aimed to continue to tweak the market. Its return marked a plan to have a heightened focus on community and culture in addition to food.
Centro Hispano is currently playing with a few plans for El Mercadito in the future. With its larger space, it may extend the market throughout the winter and hold it in the open area in the connected interior plaza. Other possible plans are to hold a dedicated winter market.
Another idea Centro Hispano is working on is a possible global food vendors market.
“I think we’re really yearning to connect to our home countries,” Coller said. “We’re still kind of thinking about what that would be, but the idea would be that you would always have a flavor of the market year-round. We’ll see how it complements what we have right now.”
El Mercadito is held every Thursday at Centro Hispano from 4-7 p.m from today until early winter.
