They indicate that the need makes them go out to offer their product in the middle of scorching temperatures
Forced by the need to work, in the middle of a dangerous heat wave – which exceeds 100 degrees – and threatened by the coronavirus pandemic, dozens of paleteros from Los Angeles came out this Saturday to offer their ice cream as every day of the week.
“After a while I put on a long-sleeved shirt to protect myself from the sun,” said Samuel Montejo, 30, a Mexican from the state of Campeche. “I also bring my straw hat to cover my head.”
Yesterday at noon, this Latino worker was at the corner of 22nd Street and Central Avenue, in south central Los Angeles. He was heading downtown, hoping to sell his $ 100 worth of merchandise.
“I work about 8 or 9 hours, so imagine, even if you feel like you’re suffocating, no way, you have to hold on,” he said. “I want to work hard because I will be leaving in two years. There I have my family, my wife and my children Francisco Fabián and Montserrat ”.
Samuel has plans to return to his land. And you don’t want to do it empty-handed.
He says that there he has his “ranchet”, where his father takes care of a herd of 30 sheep that he has bought over 15 years, since he first emigrated to the United States.
Samuel is not the only paletero who had to deal with the historic heat wave that gripped Southern California, where maximum temperatures of up to 103 degrees were recorded in that area at 3:00 p.m.
At King’s Ice Cream, a commercial property owned by Adán Reyes, 17-year-old high school student Ángel Méndez stocked his popsicle cart and headed north along Central Avenue toward downtown Los Angeles to sell his wares.
“What I earn I use for food and to help my parents,” said the young man who aspires to become a music teacher.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS) forecasts for the Labor Day holiday, temperature records would be recorded in areas of the San Fernando Valley, where records of up to 118 degrees were expected, in Woodland Hills and Calabasas.
In Van Nuys the mercury will hit 113 degrees on both days; 112 degrees in North Hollywood and between 112 and 114 degrees in Santa Clarita.
Delia Joaquín Gallardo, 59, a native of Jalisco, Mexico, told La Opinion that, during the crisis, business has dropped and that is why we must take advantage of this heat wave.
“Since we have this pandemic [del coronavirus] it sells little, ”he declared. “I lived in a small room where I paid $ 600 a month, but now I sleep in a bedroom of a house and pay $ 300; I had to change because there was no money for rent ”.
At 1:00 p.m. Saturday, Van Nuys registered 112 degrees, 109 in Pasadena and 108 in Burbank, while in downtown Los Angeles the temperature was 96 degrees. In Anaheim, 113 and 114 degrees were expected for the Saturday and Sunday, and 114 in Fullerton.
To take care
To face the ravages of the heat and any possibility of infection from the Bertha Arce coronavirus, a 48-year-old Peruvian woman was well protected: straw hat, sunglasses, long-sleeved blouse, hand sanitizer, a bottle of alcohol, napkins and her lunch of “lentils with chicken.”
“I have been selling pallets for about 10 years; Right now I go to the alleys because sometimes families with children come ”, he said.
“I am not afraid of the coronavirus, but to those who come to want to buy pallets and do not bring a mask, we do not sell them; we are educating people to cover; We tell them that we no longer bring merchandise and they leave ”.
Amid the heat wave, the National Weather Service has also warned of the threat of fires and the California Independent System Operator (Caiso) that regulates energy issued a Flex Alert, which is a call for voluntary energy conservation. It will be in effect from 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm, until Monday.
