Los Chinos

In Spokane, Washington, every Chinese food restaurant serves the same terrible food.  Deep fried meat nuggets, neon-red sweet-and-sour, ketchup and mustard for your egg rolls.  My first experience with this was at Ming Wah, a short walk from Browne's Addition, one hungover afternoon.  Only the fried rice was edible.  Months later, I was bitching about the state of Sino-American cuisine in the Inland Northwest, and my friend Scott (of bark fame) told me that there was a central company in the region whose job was to set up Chinese immigrants with restaurant franchises.  These immigrants are given shop spaces and connections for primary goods and, of course, the same exact menu.  Maybe here the cook chops the pork a little bigger, maybe there the sweet and sour is a little more neon, but it's all the same, no matter what the name of the franchise is.

In Buenos Aires, there's a similar phenomenon.  All of the small neighborhood markets are Chinese-run.  At first, this didn't seem odd.  It's an international city, and it's not like immigrants owning small shops is uncommon in the states (I can think of several Korean grocers in Pittsburgh).  But as I explored the city more, I kept seeing the same telltale blue-barred storefront, similar prefixes to "supermercado!"  A virtual monopoly on the small-grocery-store business.  I guessed it was a similar setup to Spokane's restaurant scene---many franchises, but one central company helping immigrants to establish each business.  It turns out I was right: that central company is the Chinese mafia in Buenos Aires.

According to a British artist who's lived here for 2 years, the mafia promises families a fresh start in BsAs with a small business, smuggles them from China, and sets them up here, all for the small cost of protection money---no small sum---forever and ever.  Apparently, this became public knowledge a few months ago when several shop owners who refused to pay their dues were assassinated by mob hitmen and their stores were covered in Chinese graffiti, warning other shops.

I just bought beer and wine at the chino half a block away.  It's cheaper than the large supermarket around the other corner, and faster.  Despite the similarity in shop names and blue doors, each shop can contain surprises---bamboo spatulas, for instance, or some other wine brand you haven't seen elsewhere.  It's kind of unsettling to think part of my purchase might end up as mafia money, a bribe to keep my cashier's uncle alive.  But these families---like anyone else, like me---are just trying to make it in a foreign city.  I smile when I see the familiar blue bars on an unfamiliar street.  Maybe I go in, buy a Sprite or a Quilmes.  Maybe I walk on by.


NOTES:
+ There are 2 good Chinese restaurants in Spokane, to which I was introduced after living there for more than a year.  One is on 33rd and Grand, but it's like a local PF Chang's---not too many Asians in the joint.  The other is a buffet up north, just before the "Y."  Very cheap for lunch.  Even serves sushi.

+ In Latin America, it is not considered a slurr to refer to these markets or people of Asian descent as "chinos."  I hope I'm not offending anyone with the terminology---it even left a bad taste in my mouth the first few times I said it.

+ While most chinos have produce stands, the produce is handled by Peruvian or Uruguayan immigrants, and the money for fruit and veggies is paid separately to these produce peddlers.  I don't yet know why this is.