Shoppers who walk into Noemi Leal’s corner of the Oak Park Mall are met with a burst of color.
The shelves inside her store, Artesanías Morenita Mia, are lined with hand‑painted skulls, carefully glazed pots, embroidered clothing, and other handmade goods.
These items, brought to life by several makers in Mexico, have already given several shoppers a sense of nostalgia.
“A lot of people get really happy whenever they come here because they remember them,” she said (via her son, Loth Leal, who interpreted for her). “They (say), ‘This is a toy that I used to play with when I was younger in Mexico.’”
That nostalgia is at the heart of the newly opened store, which opened at the Oak Park Mall at the end of April.
Morenita Mia opened at 11777 W. 95th St.
- The shop opened on the upper level of the Oak Park Mall, which is just off 95th Street and Quivira Road in Overland Park.
- There, it operates near department store Nordstrom inside the mall.
- Morenita Mia is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Morenita Mia offers handmade Mexican goods
The store offers a wide variety of handmade art, ceramics, clothing and jewelry — the type of things it’s common to see artists and makers selling in their communities in Mexico.
The art pieces and goods in the store come from a variety of makers in Mexico, many of whom Leal has known for years.
“The business is not only about handmade crafts,” she said. “It is also about sharing myself, my roots, and the traditions of the artisans I work with.”
Typically, Leal said customers particularly gravitate toward the shop’s clothing and the ceramic pieces.
When Leal first visited the United States a decade ago, she began imagining a way to bring a piece of her own Mexican heritage here.
“I thought that bringing my culture to this country would be really beautiful,” she said, via her son, who interpreted for her. “But I didn’t know how to do it.”
The name itself, “Morenita Mia”, translates to “my little brown girl.” For Leal, the name is about more than skin color.
“It is part of my identity and my story,” she said. “I am a proud brown skinned Mexican woman, and the name reflects who I am. Mía means it is personal, it comes from my own hands, my culture, my work, and my heart.”
Morenita Mia first got its start in Kansas City, Kansas, where it started out modestly at local events and pop-ups.
From there, she slowly but steadily built up a customer base. It was a side-hustle at first, before she formalized it as a business about three years ago.
Since opening the new Oak Park Mall storefront, she said she’s been pleasantly surprised by the positive response from the community.
Beyond this store, she hopes to expand Morenita Mia’s presence by offering some of the store’s goods in other Kansas City area stores — and potentially getting them into other states like Nebraska. Some mall visitors from that state and others have already told her they don’t see handmade art like Morenita Mia’s back home.
Something else recently opened at the Oak Park Mall
A floor below Morenita Mia, the mall recently saw another new arrival, one that’s serving up something sweet.
Locally owned Midwest Dirty Pop has begun serving “dirty” (flavored) sodas and lemonades in a bright green ‘80s-themed space.
Beyond the first busy summer of his new Oak Park Mall shop, owner Mike Lewis said he’s already thinking toward expansion, with eventual hopes for Midwest Dirty Pop drive-thrus across the Kansas City metro area.
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