By Jeff Coltin

The thriving Mexican restaraunt in the heart of Little Italy is the best example of America’s melting pot. Amidst the mozzarella and soppresatta, there is room for tortas and gorditas. Chianti is traded for sangria, and mascarpone makes way for guacamole.

Even holidays flow seamlessly. While last week belonged to the Italians with Ferragosto, this week belongs to the Mexicans and El Grito de Dolores.

El Grito, another name for Mexican Independence Day, falls on September 16. The name can be translated as “the cry of Dolores,” referring to when Mexican hero (and Catholic priest) Fr. Hidalgo declared war on the Spanish colonial forces from the Mexican town of Dolores in 1810.  The event is marked every year by the Mexican President giving el grito, from the main plaza in Mexico City, ending with a triple-cry of “¡Viva México!”

Isis Quijada, FCRH ’15,  planned to watch the events on TV at home with her family.  Quijada was born in Puebla, Mexico and moved to the Bronx at age seven so she could get a better education in the U.S. She has not been back to Mexico in more than five years, but there is one thing she would love to return for: “I’ve always wanted to go to Mexico and be there for a Grito!” she said.

Jan Krouham, GSB ’15, had other plans, hoping to celebrate at a party thrown by the Mexican Consulate in New York.

“They invite anyone with a Mexican passport, “ Krouham says — and he gets an invitation, having lived in Cancún until coming to the U.S. for high school.  “They have drinks, they have food and you get to meet other Mexican people,” he said. “It’s always fun because Mexican people like to party. So you can put them anywhere and you have fun.”

While their Grito plans differed, there is one thing both absolutely agreed on: Estrellita Poblana III. “We like the people there,” Krouham says of his fellow Mexican friends. “They’re nice to us, and the food is actually very close to what you can find in our country!”

Quijada recommended the guacamole and the torta milanesa. “It’s really, really good. It really resembles Mexican food,” she said.

The “Poblana” in the restaurant’s name means the menu comes from the Central Mexican state of Puebla—just like Quijada. And that just makes comparisons to home-cooked meals easier. As much as she likes it, Quijada said, “It would never compare to my mom’s food!”

Estrellita is the most visited Mexican restaurant among Rose Hill students. The small space at the southern end of Arthur Avenue in Little Italy is popular for generous baskets of chips before the meal, great guacamole and a lax attitude toward carding when it comes to the homemade sangria.

Estrellita’s popularity makes it the standard that all other Mexican restaurants are judged against. Nicole Holm, GSB ’15, and Nicole Karras, FCRH ’16, were eating at Rancho Estrella at 187th and Hughes Avenue the week before El Grito. Holm, a “big-time” Mexican food fan sought out the restaurant on the recommendation of a good friend.

“She said the guac was really good, but there wasn’t any sangria, like Estrellita,” Holm explained. “But, the guac is still really good and the tacos are really cheap.”

Still, Holm is not ready to switch food allegiances just yet. “I’d still have to go with Estrellita,” she said. “I think it’s the sangria. If they were to get that here, maybe I’d have to switch tunes.”

The Mexican culture in Rose Hill’s vicinity is not just limited to food.  On Hughes, just south of 188th Street, a tiny record store is squeezed in between a Mexican restaurant and a Mexican bakery. The walls of El California Records are packed with all the CD’s and DVD’s running the gamut of Mexican culture. Cynthia Lopez, 18, has been working there for a year. As a first-generation American born to Mexican parents, she said it is a great place to come if you want to get into Mexican music. If that is not your tune, “we sell everything that has to do with Mexico!” Lopez said. That includes a wide variety of green, white and red soccer jerseys, untouched by any of Rose Hill’s soccer-mad citizens. “We don’t get any Fordham students, unfortunately,” Lopez said.

That row of Mexican-owned businesses is not an anomaly in the Belmont neighborhood.  In an area known as Little Italy, home to many Albanians and predominantly home to ethnic Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, Mexican residents have left their mark. The area around Adams Place near the southern end of Little Italy is full of businesses proudly identifying their Mexican identity — from Mi Jacalito Deli-Grocery announcing the sale of productos mexicanos to the Mexico Sport Center to a barber shop painted with the familiar eagle adorning the Mexican flag. That is not to mention the numerous other Mexican-owned businesses peppered throughout the neighborhood, like Sammy’s Deli-Grocery on Arthur or Ruben’s on 187th. And, no discussion would be complete without mentioning El Rey de Mil Coronas Restaurant and Bar on 186th street with its intricately painted façade.

Krouham, who was headed to the Mexican consulate party, would not be surprised that many Mexican businesses seem to gather in an area. “We have like a team mentality,” Krouham explains. “If I were to meet another Mexican in New York tomorrow, he’ll probably become my friend, just because he’s Mexican… we look after each other.”

For all this talk of Mexican businesses, Krouham said you will not find Mexican culture in the Bronx just by going to a certain place. “It’s definitely more about the people and the company… it doesn’t matter where you take us, but as long as we’re together, we’ll have fun, we’ll have a good time.”

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Jeff Coltin is the Bronx Correspondent for The Fordham Ram.