“Both of my parents were eclectic music lovers, but my father really loved all kinds of music, from boleros to all the famous salseros—Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, El Gran Combo—to Michael Jackson, Rick Astley, and Hall and Oates,” says Christina Delgado, the founder of Tola’s Room, the northeastern Baltimore rowhouse museum dedicated to her Puerto Rican heritage.

“My dad was born in New York in 1954 to Puerto Rican-native parents and he came of age in the 1970s when salsa became a thing. Music has always been a connective thing in our family and to our heritage, like food, like language,” she continues. “When he died, he had all this stuff, including his vinyl records, which meant so much to him and so to me, too. But dealing with the trauma, I paid for an additional year of storage until I could handle going through it.”

In the years following her father’s 2013 death, Delgado began creating Tola’s Room as an art therapy project out of her Belair-Edison home. Named for her now-14-year-old daughter, the three-story space pays homage to their shared Puerto Rican and Nuyorican roots through family photographs and artifacts—including her father’s record collection—plus exhibitions, workshops, and collaborations that foster connection and understanding of the Puerto Rican diaspora.

An educator and community organizer by profession, Delgado has curated parties like a Sangria Sunday brunch, a La Bodega vendor event, a Noche Buena Night Market, a summer En Verano party, and a Navidad Borikén holiday celebration—all tied to personally or traditionally significant dates. (Borikén is the indigenous Taino name for Puerto Rico.)

A January exhibition timed to close out the Christmas season and Día de los Reyes (Three Kings Day), was scheduled to feature art and film installations, and musical performances. Booked for February is a Bad Bunny Super Bowl half-time party at Baltimore Soundstage.

The NFL’s selection of the Puerto Rican superstar, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump’s ICE policies, irritated the president, but Delgado notes Bad Bunny is a cultural icon—and a resource.

“He educates people, including myself, about the island’s musical legacy and history, and through his music keeps it alive.”

On most Sundays, the museum is open for guided tours, with Delgado highlighting the history and untold stories of Puerto Rico and its diaspora. Her ongoing Bmore Boricuas Project gathers local stories and documents Baltimore’s often-overlooked Puerto Rican community, which dates to the 1800s.

Delgado herself arrived here after growing up in New York, attending Virginia Commonwealth University, and then briefly living in D.C. With its tight-knit, distinct neighborhoods, Baltimore reminded her more of her New York upbringing than Washington.

On the museum’s second floor, through newspapers and other accounts, Delgado highlights some of the first examples of Puerto Rican migration to Baltimore, including an influx of medical students to the city and the creation of a Latino club at the University of Maryland and then-Baltimore Medical College in the mid-19th and early-20th centuries.

Also chronicled, the signing of Puerto Rican baseball players by the Baltimore Elite Giants—the city’s Negro League team—and the story of longtime Puerto Rican activist Jose Ruiz. Former Mayor William Donald Schaefer appointed Ruiz the city’s first Hispanic liaison in 1979, a decade that witnessed an influx of Latino migrants into southeast Baltimore that continues to this day.

The museum highlights, too, the 2020 election of the city’s first council person of Latin descent, Puerto Rican native Odette Ramos, coincidentally two years after Tola’s Room opened. In recent years, several Puerto Rican eateries have opened as well—The Empanada Lady downtown, Owls Corner Café in Mount Vernon, the food truck Lote 787 in Old Goucher, and Bodega & Vino in Locust Point.

The nod to her daughter in naming the museum is more than a mere sweet gesture for Delgado. Her beloved father, Edwin, who suffered from alcohol abuse, spent his career as a computer programmer for the City of New York after a proud stint in the U.S. Army. (Her mother also served and is pictured in uniform in the museum.) He died unexpectedly in Baltimore, in front of Delgado, after coming to town for his granddaughter’s first birthday.

She says the work she’s done in developing the museum has helped her to get past that grief. Asking her mother, aunts, cousins, and friends about her father, and about their own lives and Puerto Rican heritage, has built a sustaining community.

“We have similar stories as the diaspora of the archipelago,” she says. “I’m learning things in this journey, in this shared history, and in other narratives, that enable me to understand my dad better.

“I came to see it like he chose to die with me,” she continues, pausing to wipe away a tear in her living room near some photographs of her and her father. “That weighs on me, in a loving way, but it also weighs in a heavy way.”

Until recently, Rob and Angela Wainwright and their five children were a military family. But after Rob retired from the Air Force, and the kids were grown and gone, the couple, who moved to Maryland in 2016, felt like it was time for their second act.

Angela had spent much of her career working in hospitality for large corporations (Red Lobster, Starbucks), mostly because of the flexibility it afforded as the couple moved from state to state; Rob always enjoyed cooking and had a creative side. So, when it was time to figure out that next chapter, the duo decided to open Bodega & Vino, an all-in one convenience store/breakfast spot/wine bar/hangout space in Locust Point.

“This is our empty nest phase,” says Angela, whose family is from Puerto Rico. “We’ve always wanted to do some sort of business. And this was something that spoke to us, since I’m from New York with all its bodegas.”

What they missed most was having a sense of community. “Even after several years of living here, we didn’t feel connected like you do when you enter a bodega in New York,” says Rob. “Having a wine bar allows us to entertain all the time without it being at our house.”

How would you define a bodega for anyone out there who doesn’t know?
Angela: A bodega is all things morning, all things afternoon. You can get a pastry or smoothie for breakfast or get a salad or sandwich for lunch. And we have a happy hour menu for the evening. We also have a grocery side with fruit and veggies and Taharka Brothers ice cream. A bodega is all the things that you need without having to go to the grocery store.

Tell me about the menu.
Rob: We went with simple fare like empanadas, tostones, and mojo potatoes. We also have something we call Brazilian beef sliders topped with plantains—they’re a play on what Anthony Bourdain showed in one of his videos when he was in Brazil. Also, since we had a double-deck pizza oven, folks kept telling us we needed to make pizza, so we created flatbreads and we call them Spanish-style flatbreads.

Angela, tell me more about how the space is reflective of your heritage.
Puerto Ricans are very welcoming and loving. I love being able to share my Puerto Rican culture. When you’re young, you don’t think about it—your culture is just the way you were raised. Now I’m sharing how I grew up with other people. People say they love the arroz con gandules (Puerto Rican-style yellow rice). I grew up eating it, so I didn’t think much of it until now, but the fact that my daughter is making it for the bodega makes it special.

What else do you want people to know?
Rob: We have the large Under Armour parking lot next to us. When you look at the folks in the parking lot, they are very digitally focused, as they beeline to the ferry. We wish we could grab their attention to say, “Take a break Baltimore Water Taxi comes every 15 minutes. Miss the ferry, come down—you don’t even have to buy anything. Don’t start your morning in a rush.” We want the bodega to be the living room for the neighborhood where you can hang out.

Elisa Milan can never resist a challenge. So, in 2017, when a friend made her a bet that she couldn’t make money selling food—she was working in health care as a nurse licenser at the time but was a serious amateur cook—she took the bait.

“He knew that the best way to make me do something was to tell me that I couldn’t do it,” she says with a laugh. “So I did an empanada pop-up in his art gallery one night. I broke even, but I sold out. I realized I just needed to change the prices, and I’d be in the game.”

Milan sold her empanadas as a sideline, but by 2019, when her health care contract ended, despite a bad case of butterflies, the single mom decided to open her own business. Initially, Milan made the empanadas in her house and delivered them to clients with her young son in tow. In 2021, she moved to work in a commercial kitchen at Motor House in Charles Village, and more recently moved to 10 South Street in the Inner Harbor, where she expanded her operation into a full-scale restaurant, selling more than 1,000 empanadas a week.

Unsurprisingly, her restaurant is called The Empanada Lady, which is also how she’s known around town.

For Milan, making empanadas is a way for her to connect with her Puerto Rican ancestors. “I’m really spiritual,” says Milan. “Mixing the meat and adding the spices is very ritualistic. I joke that I’m working over my cauldron, and I am bringing in people from my family and generations of cooking with these spices. I honestly believe it’s why I’ve had some of the success I’ve had.”

Why did you decide to build your business around empanadas?
One of my earliest childhood memories is from when I was six. I adore my grandmother, Ramona, who was born in Puerto Rico. I just wanted to be around her as much as I could. Cooking in our family was a big deal. When we made empanadas, it was meant to be communal. It was, “You cut the dough, I’ll cut the pepper. You cook the beef. I’ll mince the garlic.” We’d come together as a whole and prepare one meal.

Where did the recipes come from?
Prior to opening the restaurant, they were not written down. When I hired my chef, Ericka Loyal, I didn’t even let her cook. Making empanadas is so sacred and personal for me, but then I was like, “If I’m going to have a business, someone else has to know how to make them.” Before that, it was always a joke that I just season them until my ancestors tell me to stop.

How are empanadas from Puerto Rico different from what you find in other countries?
The seasonings distinguish them. Puerto Ricans have certain spices that go in a traditional dish, like cilantro, garlic, and sofrito. Also, we fry them; some cultures bake them.

Tell me about the space itself.
All of the art is intentional. I. Henry [Phillips Sr.]’s photographs are in the space. [Baltimore-based Afro-Latina artist] Jaz Erenberg did the large black-and-white mural. The ceiling features umbrellas, which is a nod to a popular attraction in Puerto Rico with umbrellas suspended over a street in San Juan.

The usually picturesque tourist destination with clear blue water and vibrantly colorful landscapes has been reduced to flooded roadways, dilapidated homes, and apocalyptic conditions since Hurricane Maria made landfall last week in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane.

Just two weeks after Hurricane Irma caused devastation in the Caribbean, Maria’s destruction has left millions of residents without power, fuel, food, or water. Governor Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico estimates that 97 percent of the island is still without power and running water.

Hurricane Maria is responsible for 16 deaths in Puerto Rico, with the survivors forced to ration what little supplies remain. FEMA has been providing some lifesaving resources to the U.S. territory, but Puerto Ricans could use any additional help they can get to rebuild. Here are ways you can help from Baltimore. 

Monetary Donations
Baltimore native and NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony has created a crowd-funding campaign to help bring relief to the devastated island. To date, it has raised more than $200,000 toward the one million dollar goal.

“Hurricane Maria has caused catastrophic damage in Puerto Rico and the residents will need our help and support to rebuild,” he wrote on the page. “Please join me in raising the necessary funds to get the much-needed supplies and assistance to the people of Puerto Rico.”

The First Lady of Puerto Rico, Beatriz Rosselló, has also teamed up with corporate giants like Coca Cola, Walmart, and Walgreens to help raise money for hurricane victims with United for Puerto Rico.

The Salvation Army and American Red Cross are also accepting donations to aid survivors of the disaster that swept through the Caribbean.

Get Active
Fit4Mom Baltimore City, a local group dedicated to fitness and motherhood, will be hosting “$5 Stroller Strides for Puerto Rico” on Friday, September 29. For each mom that comes to the stroller-based fitness class, the group will donate $5 to United for Puerto Rico. After the class there will be a trivia contest and with every correct answer, Fit4Mom will donate an additional $5.

“I reached out to two former clients, one with most of her family in Puerto Rico, and one who relocated there not too long ago, to get a recommendation for a local organization we could send money to,” said Rachel Wagner, owner of Fit4Mom Baltimore. “Unidos por Puerto Rico was the only one recommended, and upon researching is also the initiative that five of our former presidents are promoting via the One America Appeal, so my decision was easily made.”

Washington D.C. nonprofit Run Hope Work is sponsoring a 5K run in Washington D.C. on October 1 to benefit victims of Hurricane Maria. A donation of $25 or more will grant you entry to the race and a Puerto Rico bandana. All funds raised will be donated to the nonprofit Friends of Puerto Rico to help rebuild the island.

SalsaNow, a local dance company that provides lessons in Latin dance, will host a fundraiser dance on Friday, October 6 at Game to help victims. For $10 participants will receive admission, lessons, and dancing.

Volunteer Time
The Salvation Army welcomes volunteers to travel to Puerto Rico to assist in numerous capacities like offering food to rescue workers and survivors or providing emotional and spiritual support to victims. In August, Chas Eby, communications director for Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), told us that Marylanders should consider contacting known organizations to get involved.

“There is a website that local residents can go to, the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster,” he said. “The organizations listed are reputable and will be more than happy to accept help from anywhere they can get it.”