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