Sara Lopez manages to take care of customers of all ages on even the hottest days, providing them with cooling snow cones from a cart she pushes along city streets.
Lopez plies her trade from early afternoon to evening hours at a busy corner in the Lincoln Heights district north of Downtown. She counts the kids from a nearby elementary school for a big portion of the business on "her corner."
Some of the kids' parents are also regular customers — for the snow cones and the roasted corn on the cob that Lopez also peddles. She even draws passing drivers, who pull to order their favorites.
"They're long-time customers," says Lopez, hurrying to take care of the crowd on a recent afternoon. "Even students who've graduated from this school keep coming.
After the sudden rush of buyers, Lopez tells about how 16 years ago she decided to fight shoulder to shoulder with her husband to make ends meet.
"Ever since I arrived in this country, I have been selling ice cream and corn on the cob mainly," she says. "I told my husband that I wanted to help with the expenses, and thank God in this way we are helping our two daughters get ahead. They're already in high school. It doesn't matter how, what is important is to work honestly, because our goal is to attain the American dream."
But Lopez is not satisfied with what she is currently doing. She is bettering herself everyday because she is about to achieve another one of her dreams, to graduate from Wilson & Lincoln Adult School with a high school diploma.
"The idea is to better oneself in order to attain other goals," she says.
"My idea is to keep studying in order to get better jobs — or who knows, maybe even set up an official business. That would be ideal, that's why I go to school in the mornings. Fortunately, this little business gives us enough, because my husband also does the same on other streets. At the end of the day, we put our earnings together, and we divide it up towards our household expenses, a bit of savings, and for buying what we need to keep selling the snow cones and corn-on-the-cobs.
Lopez and her husband still experience the same challenges as millions of undocumented people who cannot hold a steady job because of the lack of a valid Social Security number.
"We have a lot of hope that our situation will soon be resolved, that is the only thing that keeps us going," she says.
"My husband and I are already in the process of regularization... Hopefully with Barack Obama, the process will become easier, and everyone possible will get taken care of."
Until then, customers like Margarita Jimenez will admire Lopez's work.
"She gives it a lot of enthusiasm," says Jimenez, a recent visitor to Lopez' corner in Lincoln Heights. "She's a very brave woman, because not many of us mothers have the courage to do what she is doing, going out on the street with her head high and studying — that's admirable."
Nora Alicia Estrada is a writer for Impulso.
Photos from Impulso
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