The first evening of the Virgen de Guadalupe celebration along the East End Navigation corridor ended in tears and losses for many food vendors who were told to pack up and leave or face fines, even arrests.
The Catholic celebration takes place Dec. 11 and 12 and usually attracts many vendors along the Navigation esplanade. This year, vendors were not allowed to set up on the busy corridor due to overcrowding concerns.
With the ban in place, about 12 vendors set up Wednesday night in the parking lot of Merida’s, a restaurant about a block away from where the event is held. The next night, roughly seven vendors were left after Houston Health Department officials continued to crack down on vendors.
On the first night of the celebration, confusion surfaced as officials with the Houston Health Department arrived to ask vendors for their Temporary Food Permits, a permit only granted for vendors setting up in a temporary location. Many didn’t have temporary food permits but instead had permits for other businesses or other locations.
“No nos dejan trabajar,” Teresa Mora said amid tears.
Her pupusas and elotes stand had just been shut down, and she didn’t realize her other permits were not valid at this location.
“We have about 10 years getting permits to work here,” Mora said in Spanish. “We want help from the city for those of us who want to work with their rules.”
Like many vendors, Mora and her family have relied on organizers hired by the East End District to help organize details like this.
This year, the East End District decided not to host the vendor market.
“We get permits every single year,” said Raquel Ramirez, a vendor who runs a churro stand. “This is the first time that we don’t… for the city of Houston, it took me three hours to fill out the application.”
The three hours she spent submitting the eight-page application – only available in English on the city’s website as of Wednesday – resulted in a denied request.
Ramirez and others closed down their stands Wednesday, but later that evening, some vendors, ticketed or not, continued to sell to the growing lines of parishioners and visitors, who lined up to get their champurrado, tacos, elotes and more.
Lucy Brown, chief sanitarian with the Houston Health Department, said residents and business owners filed complaints ahead of this year’s event about unpermitted vendors in previous years blocking sidewalks and right of ways, leading to obstructed traffic.
Her instructions were to ask anyone operating without a valid food dealers permit to stop selling or giving away food to the public and to leave the area.
“If they didn’t shut down and leave, unfortunately they did receive citations for violating the city ordinance, chapter 20, which requires obtaining a valid food dealers permit prior to operating,” Brown said.
Vendors complained that health department officials only gave them 30 minutes or less to break down their stands and leave, a near impossible task with the throngs of people roaming around the parking lot.
Brown said she issued no instructions on such deadlines.
Confusion over permits
As vendors were approached by health officials, several showed other permits such as city or county permits that allowed them to sell food in other locations. Brown explained permits are not transferable, and in this case, they needed a temporary permit to operate in that particular location.
“Last year, they even took Harris County permits,” said Rafael Acosta, owner of Merida’s restaurant, who, aside from this year, has previously leased his parking lot to vendors of food, snacks, clothing and more. “This year, they looked like they came directly to remove the people here.”
Acosta rented these spaces for about $700 per spot, with some vendors taking two or three spots depending on their needs. He said they were all asked to bring their valid permits and he trusted they would handle that on their own, adding that his mistake was not to check if they in fact had them.
In previous years, Acosta did not have to do anything other than to issue the same reminder, he said, but he felt like these year’s changes were unfairly targeting vendors that just want to make a living in an honest manner. As of Thursday, Acosta had no plans to issue refunds saying vendors were warned to acquire their permits on time.
Part of the application for the Temporary Food Permit requires an authorization form on part of the property owner, event organizer or agent, which Acosta has never had to sign. For vendors who had previously rented along the esplanade, this was done through an organizer.
“I never put together an event,” Acosta said. “All I do is rent spaces, period. The event is part of the church.”
A group of about five or six sanitarians struggled to be heard over the sound of loud music. They took pictures of vendors’ IDs and of their stands even as some turned away customers. Brown confirmed tickets were issued, but said they didn’t have an exact count yet.
Porfirio Villarreal, public information officer and City Council liaison with the health department, said these tickets can result in fines of up to $2,000, with a judge making the final decision on how much they’ll charge the vendors for each citation.
“And this is per day,” Villarreal said about the fines. “So that’s why we encourage them to get a permit.”
Juan Flores and his family have a stand that sells seasonal hot beverages, like champurrado and ponche, and received at least three citations Wednesday evening. When health officials showed up at his stand, Flores looked around in dismay not knowing what to do. His investment would go to waste if he picked up and left. He didn’t get an event permit but was among those who presented city officials with permits for his other food business.
“It affects many families. We’ve invested what little we can on this, and it will be trash,” Flores said. “They want to shut us down, even if we have other permits.”
Many vendors estimated they would lose thousands of dollars in perishable foods purchased for the two-day event. On Thursday evening, Flores was again surrounded by health officials asking him questions. This time he didn’t get another citation, he said, but he didn’t know what to expect later.
‘Se Ve Muy Triste’
Outside the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church Wednesday evening, attendees waiting in line to enter the next service questioned why things just didn’t look like they remembered.
“Se ve muy triste, ¿verdad?” said Sonia Hernandez looking around talking to her neighbors in line.
The group of devout attendees who held on to flowers to offer to la Virgen said they normally find long lines outside the church around 8 p.m., the time they arrived. This year, they found spots near the entrance to the church.
“Usually the streets would be filled with people arriving,” Uriel Valencia said in Spanish.
Valencia, a church parishioner, is a former vendor at this event but stopped a few years ago, he said. He heard about this year’s changes from his colleagues and said he wasn’t happy with the changes.
Hernandez, Valencia and other attendees were quick to point out that the market and the food were also a big part of what they looked forward to every year.
“We come here to experience our culture, to eat tacos, elotes, champurrado, and they are not letting people sell. I don’t think that’s right,” Valencia said in Spanish. “For us it’s a piece of México.”
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