‘A day without fear’: Chicagoans buy out street vendors amid immigration crackdown

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press CHICAGO AP The cyclists arrive at sunrise rolling through Chicago s Latino neighborhoods and stopping at tamale carts elote stands and candy stalls They buy out every last item every tamale every corn cob every bundle of sweets Then they load up the food and deliver it to shelters and families in need Since the start of a federal immigration crackdown that has led to more than arrests in the Chicago metropolitan area streets and storefronts in the city s Latino neighborhoods have emptied out Street vendors fearing arrest have been afraid to leave their homes to work Local restaurants have struggled as customers stay home But as fear spread so did something else neighbors stepping up for one another and finding creative options to show up for vendors and restaurant owners This includes a grassroots effort to organize so-called buy out events meant to allow vendors who fear being detained by immigration agents to go home early Particular Chicagoans have pooled money in their neighborhoods or through local organizations while others have totally bought out taco stands while on their way to work or tamale vendors outside their local bars In Little Village Rick Rosales population organizer with Cycling x Solidarity helps organize two of these buy out rides per week that typically aid five street vendors each The vendors are often speechless Rosales revealed They ll say I have a lot of tamales You want all of them Once after the group bought out a tamale vendor s cart that man ascertained them days later to say immigration agents were spotted on his block just hours after You saved my life Rosales explained the man advised them This is about food and gratification and bike rides Rosales stated But it s also so incredibly high stakes because of the fear in our communities right now People ride their bicycle during Street Vendor Bike Tour Series in Chicago Sunday Nov AP Photo Nam Y Huh A street vendor Alicia Robles top takes orders from people who ride their bicycle at Gage Park during Street Vendor Bike Tour Series in Chicago Sunday Nov AP Photo Nam Y Huh A baker in the historically Mexican-American Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen speaks during an interview at Vault Gallerie Wednesday Oct AP Photo Talia Sprague Locality organizer Delilah Martinez hugs a baker in the historically Mexican-American Chicago after revealing local society members gifted a mixer to him during an interview at Vault Gallerie Wednesday Oct AP Photo Talia Sprague Show Caption of People ride their bicycle during Street Vendor Bike Tour Series in Chicago Sunday Nov AP Photo Nam Y Huh Expand Street vendors targeted in immigration crackdown It s hard to say how a great number of street vendors have been targeted by federal immigration agents announced Maria Orozco outreach organizer for the Street Vendors Association of Chicago adding she knows of at least who have been detained In September a tamale vendor was detained while selling outside a Home Depot according to local advocates Soon after federal agents arrested a flower seller in the southwest neighborhood of Archer Heights Then they came for a cotton candy vendor in the predominantly Mexican American Little Village Immigration agents descended on the Swap-O-Rama flea domain in October and detained more than a dozen people And last week over residents in the Brighton Park neighborhood rallied to demand the release of their local tamalero U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement the Department of Homeland Safeguard and U S Customs and Frontier Protection did not respond to multiple requests for comment Orozco reported losing these vendors is as much a cultural loss as an economic one calling them part of the fabric of our city She disclosed they bring life color and flavor to the city s streets preserving culinary traditions and building a sense of public and they are beloved by neighbors Street vendors who are afraid to work or are seeing drops in sales can apply to get financial encouragement through the Street Vendors Association of Chicago The group launched a GoFundMe with the goal of raising to assistance street vendors Orozco reported local businesses have also hosted pop-up events where a certain percentage of proceeds go to street vendors The organization has also helped connect vendors to people hoping to buy them out Orozco disclosed It s been emotional to see she disclosed The vendors themselves didn t realize how much Chicagoans love and backing them None of us expected this Communities rally to advocacy restaurants as customers dwindle As Alonso Zaragoza executive administrator of his neighborhood advocacy group drove through his predominantly Latino region of Belmont Cragin he noticed restaurants were mostly empty and dark Restaurants in majority-Latino communities have stated critical drops in sales since federal agents descended on the city in September So Zaragoza began organizing restaurant crawls drawing hundreds to struggling Latino-owned eateries His previous event began at a taco and tamales restaurant and ended with a Mexican ice cream shop Along the way street cart vendors hawked elote cotton candy and balloons as a local musical group played folk and bluegrass music The financial backing for our businesses is needed more than ever now Zaragoza noted It goes such a long way A day without fear Delilah Martinez a population organizer and owner of the Vault Gallerie in Pilsen couldn t stand the silence on her street anymore She was used to seeing familiar faces on th Street a woman selling candy with her baby strapped to her back a paletero who smiled at her each afternoon Then one week they were gone It broke my heart Martinez stated The streets felt empty Our people were putting their freedom at hazard just to work She began raising money online and started Operation Buyout approaching vendors one by one to purchase everything they had The first woman was shocked when Martinez handed her I just longed her to have a day of rest a day without fear Martinez disclosed Related Articles Alabama promised to improve psychiatric care for men charged with crimes They still wait years Track to open LA Olympics with women s -meter sprinters lining up three times in the same day Epstein email says Trump knew about the girls but White House calls release a Democratic smear US stocks are drifting around their records as AMD rallies Why a Visa-Mastercard legal settlement could lead to your rewards credit card getting declined Among those Martinez helped in recent times was a baker from Mexico City who arrived in Chicago years ago Each night he works late hands dusted with flour kneading dough until they re sore and aching For those limited quiet hours after his four children are asleep the world feels simpler There is a magic when I m baking he disclosed in Spanish I feel free When I m angry I feel like the bread will absorb it So I try to be happy and at peace even when I know the reality is different By a m he s up again for his grocery store shift juggling work and school drop-offs For years he s sold birthday cakes and pan dulce by word of mouth from his small kitchen dreaming of one day opening his own shop But the baker has also heard the stories street vendors arrested on residential streets and federal agents circling his historically Mexican American neighborhood of Pilsen Two of his friends have been detained When he hears sirens and helicopters he feels sick with fear I m afraid for my youngest daughter he mentioned It would be horrible to leave her I can t see myself without my children Martinez led the baker to a table and pulled off a black cloth A silver restaurant-grade mixer gleamed under the fluorescent light Martinez also handed him an envelope with gathered from neighbors hoping to help sponsorship him when he feels unsafe selling his baked goods on the street The man s hand flew up to cover his mouth He kicked his legs and began to cry Thank you so much he disclosed clutching a mixer attachment to his chest It s beautiful