By Isaac Ceja / The Opinion
27 Aug 2024, 02:38 AM EDT
Every weekday, José Rodríguez begins his day by preparing his cart at 7 a.m. so he can sell mangoneadas, chicharrones, raspados, and more until 6 p.m. on Calle Cuatro in the city of Santa Ana.
This year, the street vendor celebrates 30 years as part of the street vendor community in the city centre, despite the changes and difficulties that exist in the work.
“It’s a unique thing to do this job,” Rodriguez said. “Because every salesperson has to acclimatize to cold and hot weather.”
Rodríguez says that in the summer, raspados are in high demand, but in the winter he changes his menu and instead of raspados he starts selling esquites and corn on the cob.
Plus, she always makes sure to have a variety of sodas, energy drinks, Cheetos, Doritos, candy, and seasonal fruit.
Although he has a lot of experience in his job today, Rodriguez never had in mind to be a street vendor.
He is originally from Cuernavaca, Morelos, he came to the United States in 1990 and worked for several years maintaining a garden with an uncle.
Shortly after, he received an invitation from his father-in-law who worked as a street vendor, and that was when he decided to change his line of business.
When he started working, the differences between jobs became drastic. In his other job he moved from city to city, but now as a street vendor he had to get used to standing in the same place and interacting with more people.
“I have always been a bit shy, but in this type of work you have to put that aside and be a bit more talkative,” said Rodriguez.
Today, Rodriguez says that the job is easier for him and it is something he does automatically, although he has also noticed the decrease in street vendors on Calle Cuatro in the city center.
Sometimes his wife, Socorro Rivas, helps him work and when his children were younger they also accompanied him, while the vendor did his work.
Almost 15 years ago, she noticed an increase in businesses from other cultures in the area since historically the population was predominantly Latino, but the community was beginning to change.
For a long time there were 11 street vendors, but now there are 4 with Rodriguez being the one who has been working the longest.
According to the vendor, the changing population with fewer Latinos has affected the street vendors’ business, and many have had to leave in search of different areas in the city where there are more Latino customers.
Before the population shift in downtown Santa Ana, Rodriguez typically earned $300 a day, but now he says he only makes about $100 daily.
After facing a decline in clients, five years later, Rodriguez realized he had diabetes when he developed an insatiable thirst and lost nearly 50 pounds.
“There are times when diabetes weakens you a lot, makes you tired and there are times when you don’t feel motivated to do other activities,” he explained.
Although the salesman is now taking the appropriate medication, he maintains that fatigue affects him, but it does not stop him from continuing to work.
What he likes most about being a street vendor is being able to see that his customers leave happy, and when they return he feels excited.
“It’s one thing to just send them off and say goodbye, but when you give them good service and you see that they come back once, twice, or three times, or that they’re your customers for years, it’s satisfying,” he explained.
Recently a customer came in with his family and told Rodriguez that he remembers when he was a 10-year-old boy and his mother would take him to buy snacks from her car.
The vendor explains that he is motivated when customers return after a long time and although he is now 58 years old, he does not expect to stop working as a street vendor.