Photo: Araceli Martinez Ortega / Impremedia
For three days, Manuel González has been selling hot tamales from a cart outside the Home Depot store in the city of Glendale, California; and he feels very lucky because he complied with all the requirements under the law to sell food on the street.
Manuel is the second street vendor to obtain a permit from the Los Angeles County Department of Health to sell street food from his cart, and the first in the city of Glendale.
“I’ve done very well. The community of day laborers around the Home Depot has helped me a lot and in general the people of Glendale”, says Manuel, born in Los Angeles, but to parents from Jalisco, Mexico.
Before being a tamale vendor, Manuel was a car washer, but the pandemic forced him to reinvent himself because – he says – he wanted to do something for himself.
“I was at the Pomona Fair three weeks ago with my tamale cart and now I decided to settle in Glendale,” he says.
Manuel starts with his carts of steaming tamales starting at 10 in the morning and stays until 10 at night.
“The day laborers leave at 6 p.m., but the Home Depot store closes at 10 p.m., and I stay until then to sell to customers who come in and people who pass by.”
He talks about how he decided to locate outside the Home Depot in Glendale, because he is a regular customer at that store, and he liked the point for selling his tamales.
“I’m not on Home Depot land but on the sidewalk.”
The merchant sells his tamales in an original cart similar to the one used by paleteros, only it is bigger.
“It measures from 4 to 5 feet long, and 3 wide; And it comes equipped with gas to keep the tamales steaming hot.”
He reveals that he had his cart made by the company Revolution Carts.
“You go and explain to them what you want, and they design it for you according to your needs. It took them about 6 weeks to do it.”
Say what Revolution Carts also supports street vendors with assistance in obtaining Los Angeles County health permits, the government license to build the business, and the permit to operate the cart.
“I struggled a lot to get them. They took about a month and a half to give them to me, but they promised me that it will be easier from now on. I hope they don’t take more than two weeks to deliver them.”
Also if we can’t find where to put ourselves, the company Revolution Carts it gives us options of where we can go.
“They help us build our cart, advise us on how to get our health permits, and give us all the assistance we need to start the business.”
Manuel sells chicken and pork tamales.
“I’m going to have strawberry, cheese and rajas, and corn, but I don’t always bring because what people ask me for the most are chicken and pork, and the rest stay with me. They don’t have the same demand.”
He says he put tamales in his cart Good Food because their tamales are really good.
“The other day two Armenians came and asked me what I was selling. I told them tamales. They didn’t know what they were, and I explained. When they tried them they were fascinated. So I’m helping people from other cultures know and enjoy Mexican tamales.”
Manuel clarifies that he does not make the tamales but that he has a person who prepares them.
Each tamale costs $5.
“I admit that they are expensive, but they are of quality, they are large, and in less than two minutes I serve them, they do not have to wait like in a restaurant; And they can pay in cash or with a credit card.
Definitely, he admits, he’s happy with his tamale cart. Good Food.
His dream says “it is to take more carts and put them in different places where the community can enjoy the tamales.”
Manuel is seen smiling not only because of the good reception his tamale cart has had in Glendale, a community inhabited mostly by residents of Armenian origin, but also because the Los Angeles County Department of Health recently rated it with the grade A which means your cart is clean, code compliant and free of violations.
“I am very happy with my tamale cart, and as a Latino I like to show that it is possible. In the future I would like to have more trucks and give people work”.
Manuel positions his tamale cart outside the Glendale Home Depot, located at 5040 San Fernando Road.
Last year, California passed SB 972 that allows street vendors to obtain permits to legally sell certain foods, which saves them from being subject to fines and harassment by county health inspectors.