vendor
Lady Elote lifts her lamp: Send me your hungry, your poor (toon)
We will not be denied our rights to elotes!
Immigrant street vendors are among the most cherished people in our communities. They bring two things we can’t do without: food and culture.
[Hey, pochos: This design is available on t-shirts, too! Women’s in baby blue and men’s in black on sale now. Wear this shirt with Elote Pride!]
Paletas y Racismo: I was a teenage paletero – in Georgia
After we published our shocking story about a missing El Paso paletero, a real-life former ice cream man reached out to POCHO on Facebook.
Jonathan Omar Ramirez (Facebook profile pic, right) had been a teenage paletero, he said. We asked him for his story:
POCHO: So what led you to become a paletero?
Well my friends from high school told me about it. Many did it before and they said there was a lot of cash involved and within a couple of hours of work. Also I was very poor.
POCHO: Was this right after high school?
No [it was] while I was in high school. Still I got money to go to the movies and for food or whatever I wanted to buy
POCHO: Wow, cool! So were you allowed to eat your own ice cream? Did you just have to pay it back?
Mas…Paletas y Racismo: I was a teenage paletero – in Georgia
Naranjas, Señor?! Oranges for sale! (video)
Post by Being Chicano.
The naranjero works hard for his money, so hard for it, honey.
As much as this street-vending orange seller looks like POCHO amigo Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano, it’s not him.
Here’s Arellano at his weekend gig:
Sometimes the hardest choice is ‘The Second Choice’ (video)
In Los Angeles, an immigrant single mom tries to teach her son to do the right thing, but talk is cheap when the rent is due tomorrow and your only income is as an unlicensed street vendor. What would you do when it all came down to The Second Choice?
Short film by Alberto Belli. Spanglish with English subtitles.