Cafecito con Las Imaginistas
It was a chilly Saturday morning as the grupo de trabajadores ambulantes began to arrive early to our studio in downtown Brownsville for our monthly cafecito meet up, bringing with them friends and acquaintances whom were interested in learning about Taller de Permiso and becoming vendors themselves.
The first pot of coffee was served and more and more people began to fill the studio space with seats being put out to accommodate everyone comfortably. Once we were settled, we opened our meeting with a discussion on a pressing matter.
Many of the vendors we work with receive assistance in the form of housing, medicare, or other social services. Some depend entirely on social security benefits for income. A growing concern among our vendors is the ways taxes and income from their businesses may affect their qualifications for these services.
“We know that what we receive from the government is often not enough to survive,” pointed out one of our vendors. They explained that being able to work as a vendor is how they make ends meet, but that it does not provide enough income to make up for losing government assistance.
Most of the vendors present responded in agreement.
We discussed what kinds of questions we would like to ask an attorney in regards to risking the potential loss of said benefits in exchange for the ability to be a vendor with a viable tax permit. Then we talked about how critical it is for city leaders to actively listen to the needs of community members, so that city policies could better reflect and respond to those needs.
We proposed inviting city commissioners to be a part of our cafecitos, so they may be better informed about our project, and so they may listen to the questions and ideas our group has raised.
“Yes, we have to begin with the commissioner of this District so they can see what we are doing and what our needs are,” stated one of the newest members of our group.
Lastly, in the process of discussing upcoming Charro Days vending workshops with the city’s health department, our vendors were emphatic in proposing the idea of having Taller de Permiso and Las Imaginistas participate in the upcoming Charro Days parade with our triciclos.
The heart of Charro Days is a local annual celebration of bi-nationality between the United States and Mexico. Our vendors felt it was important to have a presence at the parade to highlight the ongoing effort to build sustainable economic development in Brownsville, and to celebrate our community’s tradition of mobile food vending, rooted in our Mexican cultural identity.
We closed the meeting by sharing updates for upcoming markets we are organizing in collaboration with the Brownsville Wellness Coalition & Revival of Cultural Arts.
Three coffee pots, plenty of pan dulce and breakfast tacos later, we gathered to take a group photo to capture the amazing feeling of solidarity and intention in the room.