SOMERVILLE – A small store in Somerville is bringing the culture of Mexico to Massachusetts.
Maria Ines Soler Meneses opened Amantolli two years ago in Bow Market after doing pop-ups for a while. She started the business because, as a Mexican immigrant herself, she was struggling to find pieces that reminded her of home here.
“I feel very always proud to be Mexican. All the time after I came to the U.S., I was looking for authentic Mexican crafts and I never found it,” she told WBZ-TV.
Meneses said her store is the only one of its’ kind in the Boston area, sourcing items directly from families in Mexico to support them.
She told us that most of the families are women and children that she meets who are selling their art on the streets of Mexico.
“With the money they can have resources, they can have food, they can pay for school, go to college,” she explained.
Meneses goes to Mexico two or three times a year to meet with the families and find new ones to support.
“We travel to different states looking for new families to work with us like a team,” she said.
Meneses uses to the store as a way to teach people about Mexican culture and to explain how all of the pieces they sell are handmade.
“We have some pictures of the artists, so people can see the faces of who is making all of this,” she said.
Her goal is to open a larger store one day so that she can support even more families in Mexico.
