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| Taken from seaeaglemarket.com |
by Susan Palmes-Dennis
If I said it once, I'll say it a thousand times. I love to tell the stories of Filipinos who are proud of their upbringing.
One such story is a fish vendor in my birth country the Philippines who is now a proud fish vendor here in the Carolinas.
Marilyn Leiter nee Marilyn Santillan Regala Leiter of Spartanburg, South Carolina is a former native of Betes, Guagua in Pampanga province, Philippines. I met Marlyn at Facebook and she tells me that she is proud of her trade.
With her husband Brian, Marilyn sells fresh fish and shrimp at their house every Friday and at the Spartanburg flea market on Asheville Highway every Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Like most Pinoys, Marilyn is proud of her heritage. She finished college by selling fish and helping her mother tend a sari-sari store.
“Until now we still have the sari sari store in the Philippines but they are not selling fish anymore because I am not there anymore,” Marilyn chuckled.
The couple is licensed to sell fish in the Carolinas. Every weekend they have different fishes to sell like snapper, white bass, white perch, flounder, shrimp, gray snapper, salmon fillet and catfish.
“We always have tilapia and shrimp. We get our fish from the commercial fishermen. We are licensed to sell fish in our state. Prices aren't the same all the time because it's hard to catch fish. It depends on the season I guess,” Marilyn said.
She said tilapia, shrimp, snapper, white bass and catfish are best sellers and they have a lot of Hispanic and Asian American customers. Marilyn also met a lot of friends in her three-month old business and looks forward to more success in the future.
If you're in the Spartanburg area in South Carolina, please do buy from them. I'm already introducing all my friends to Marilyn. Be sure to look them up at this website.
More on other Filipinos in the Carolinas soon.
(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)
