Hi, I'm Dan Pramath, and welcome to Axios Recap, presented by General Motors.

Today is Friday, March 19th.

U.S. hotel reservations are up, Tesla stock is down, and we're focused on a fight over

New York City bodegas.

If you've ever lived in New York City, bodegas.

If you've ever lived in New York City, you've almost certainly relied on a bodega, those

ubiquitous corner shops that sell everything from food to toiletries to rolling paper.

There are thousands of them, dotting all five boroughs.

But even if you've relied on a bodega, you might not have realized that lots of them are organized,

or at least have trade groups that help represent them.

One is the National Association of State Latino Chambers of Commerce, and the inclusion of

bodegas was championed several years back by a guy named Frank Garcia, who at the time

was leading the New York State chapter and who now chairs the national organization.

That organization, at Garcia's urging, recently threatened to do the almost unthinkable,

boycott Coca-Cola. That could have meant no more Coke, Sprite, Fanta, or PowerAid,

in not just New York City bodegas, but in bodegas throughout the country. Why boycott? Two primary reasons. First,

because Coke is said to have closed something called the Office of Latin Affairs. And second,

because Garcia believes that funding for certain diversity programs by Coke has come at the expense

of funding for Hispanic-focused diversity programs. So we wanted to talk to Garcia about his

beef with Coke and how it might be resolved short of a boycott. That conversation in 15

seconds. We're joined now by Frank Garcia, chairman of the National Association of State Latino

Chambers of Commerce. Frank, let's start just with some big numbers here.

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