De mi Tierra brings treasures from the Spanish-speaking world to Dover
DOVER — A new store has brought specialty merchandise from Spanish-speaking countries to downtown.
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De mi Tierra, which means From my Land in Spanish, offers alpaca wool blankets and apparel, handmade leather products, natural body care products, greeting cards and more. There are teddy bears covered in cloud-soft alpaca wool and “warmies,” lavender-filled stuffed animals that can be heated or chilled to comfort sore muscles.
"The thing that I'm most in love with is the alpaca wool blankets, ponchos, ruanas," said Hailey Diaz, who owns the store with husband Juan Diaz, a native of Chile. Ruanas are oversized shawls with fringes.
"The benefit of the alpaca wool is that it's hypoallergenic," Hailey said. The fibers don't feel scratchy in the way that lamb's wool can be, she said. Alpaca items can be machine-washed on a delicate cycle.
De mi Tierra is a family-run business that started with help from advisers Mike Impagliozza and Tim Rife at the Small Business Development Center of Kent State University at Tuscarawas.
For now, Hailey is the whole staff. Juan works as a machinist in Ashland County. Son Evan, 19, and daughter Javiera, 16, will help to staff the store during the summer. The family lives in the unincorporated community of Moreland south of Wooster.
They have made buying trips to Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala and Ecuador. Some items come from wholesalers.
Best-selling items include embroidered shirts for men and boys from Mexico. The store offers a "daddy discount" of $5 for buying one for a man and one for a boy.
For females, there are sweaters with alpaca wool appliques in the arpillera style of Peru.
Accessories include purses, backpacks, laptop messenger bags, toddler-size sandals and glass-beaded earrings. Mexican pottery and original photography notecards are on display.
Body care products feature avocado, banana, aloe, shea butter and coconut. There are lotions, soaps, shampoos, conditioner, scrubs and body sprays.
By summer, the stock will include tropical wood tablet and cell phone holders from Peten Flores, Guatemala, and tagua seed necklaces from South America.
The store at 131 W. Third St. will have an open house from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.
"We want everybody, every language and every culture to feel that they can stop in and see the place, people that can't travel right now, people that wonder if we have something that they saw on their travels," said Hailey.
"The idea is for people to just come and visit," Juan said. "We like to talk to people."
There will be three prize drawings at the end of Saturday’s open house for a body care products set, a large alpaca warmie and an alpaca wool shawl in the color of the winner’s choice.
Hailey, who considers herself a Chinese checkers expert, is offiering a 20% discount on merchandise to anyone who can beat her at the board game during the open house.
De mi Tierra is open for limited days and hours: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
The store opened March 26. It can be found on Facebook as De mi Tierra LLC.
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This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Downtown Dover store brings imports from Spanish-speaking world
