Self-employed mothers in South Central LA blossom during Mother's Day season

A day after Mother’s Day, Karina Zapeta is still selling balloons, candy and teddy bears. She communicates with customers using a whiteboard and dry erase marker because they don’t know American Sign Language. Karina is deaf. 

“Do you have anything for $10?” three students inquire out loud, and one of them writes the number ten next to a dollar sign on the whiteboard as Zapeta instructs them to do. That was after school dismissal on Thursday, the day before May 10, when various countries in Latin America, including El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, celebrate Mother’s Day. 

Whether on May 10th or the second Sunday of May, Mother’s Day is a special occasion when Latine families honor their mothers. In South Central Los Angeles, swaths of color decorate the main avenues by vendors selling Mother’s Day gifts, many of them mothers themselves. They say they are earning additional income and servicing their community. 

“The goal is to sell out,” said Evelyn Sanchez, 39, who is a student at East Los Angeles Community College and mother to four children. 

She described the hustle as a hobby and an art involving three generations of women. Her grandmother is the original vendor who dreamed of one day owning a flower shop. They camp out on the corner of Florence Avenue and San Pedro Street early on Mother’s Day to reserve their spot near the busy intersection. Across the street, her aunt’s children pass the time in the parking lot of El Super. According to Evelyn, within the family, her aunt and grandmother make the best flower bouquets.

Sanchez shows off the basket she made which contains the essentials of a spa treatment, including a color-coordinated loofah, shower gel bottle, bath bomb and teddy bear. “I picked summer colors,” she says, adjusting the yellow and blue ribbons on the basket. 

She said she feels safe where she sells because police officers frequent the 7-Eleven next door. Her cousins, one of who is clean-shaven head and tattoos, wearing a long-sleeve flannel, regularly ride by on their bicycles to check in on her, her daughters and nieces. “They’re not scary,” she says. “They check on us to make sure we’re safe.” 

Street vendor safety

Community safety and care is something that Teresa Martinez, 49, says she wishes street vendors could organize amongst themselves. She said she misses the drivers who, during the pandemic, would circulate and notify street vendors when someone nearby had been mugged. 

“Causing harm has been in style lately,” Martinez says, referring to the news clips that air on television and are shared on social media about street vendors being assaulted. “That’s why I have these scissors.” 

On the next main avenue going southbound, Sandra Ayala, 56, was robbed last Thursday on Manchester Avenue and San Pedro Street. 

Three young men snatched a few of her baskets on sale and drove away in a car. The driver made a U-turn as laughter roared out from the open car windows. “It hurts bad,” Ayala said as she dried her tears with the sleeve of her sweater. “I stay up late at night.” She said the men might have been the same group of men that stole from her in March when she sold Easter baskets. “Today, they broke me,” she said, admitting that she hadn’t cried then, but that day she couldn’t hold back her tears. 

Ayala emigrated from El Salvador and has been a street vendor since 1999. She said she loves talking to people and likens her personality to that of a chachalaca, a bird in her native country who is known to scream and yap. “I make my livelihood thanks to my clients,” she said, adding that building relationships with them is important for her. 

When Ayala is not selling seasonal gifts, she is feeding her neighbors pupusas on Avalon Boulevard and 84th Street. She will soon be selling fresh-squeezed juices. 

“To forge ahead, for our children.” 

Research shows that more than 80% of street vendors are women, and according to a 2022 study titled “Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States,” immigrants are 80 percent more likely than people born in the United States to start their own business.  

“If you are ever in a tough situation, you can go out and sell things,” Joselin Garcia, 43, said she tells her grandchildren. “But you never give up.” 

Garcia emigrated from Mexico when she was seven years old, and currently has custody of her two grandchildren, both under 10 years old. Garcia said she sells Mother’s Day gifts to earn extra money to treat her grandchildren. She said she feels proud to be out on the street selling because she is teaching her grandchildren values at the same time. Her five-year old granddaughter played on a tablet next to her, wearing her school uniform.

Garcia recalled growing up with her grandmother in historic South Central and following her as she sold tamales to the local community. “Everybody knew us,” she said, explaining that this is the first year she tries selling Mother’s Day gifts. She’s had custody of her grandchildren for the past two years. 

Maira Santana, 31, on Gage Avenue and Broadway Street, is a single mother to four children.Her first pregnancy at 14 years of age motivated her to pursue self-employment. “It’s what pushed me into this business,” she said. In her earlier days, she sold street tacos with her family. Then, she tried selling flower bouquets. Eventually she started selling party planning supplies, including rental chairs and tables. Her parents, vending around the corner, also sold Mother’s Day gifts. There are three other stands selling Mother’s Day gifts that are posted on the surrounding street, but she said those are not of her family members. “Those businesses belong to other people.” 

Not too far away, a squadron of LAPD officers with helmets surrounded the southwestern corner of Figueroa and 75th streets on that Friday. That is where Maria Eufemia, 44, sold gift baskets. She is also a single mother who commutes across L.A. County. She lives in East Los Angeles, but a 15-year friendship brings her to South Central. 

“I saw the police and I was starting to think it’s scary out here,” she said. “But then two women came by to buy something and everything was fine.” She said selling Mother’s Day gifts provides her with additional income to raise her three children. Her livelihood consists of selling Mary Kay and Herbalife products, which she includes in her Mother’s Day baskets.

Her prices ranged from $10 to $30, saying that K-12 students make up a large portion of her Mother’s Day sales customer base. “Students don’t have money,” she said remembering her son coming home one day sad because he couldn’t afford a gift for her. 

“I do this with love, to forge ahead, for my children,” Eufemia said. 

Martinez said mothers deserved to be celebrated because they perform a lot of unpaid labor. “They deserve to be flattered,” she said. An onlooker stopped by on his bicycle and pointed to a rose and Ferrero Rocher chocolate arrangement on her table. “How much?” The colorful assortment was $90, to which he replied, “Damn,” riding away with a toddler on the bicycle with him.

Sanchez says that she is teaching her children the value of hard work, and they earn their part. She encourages them to use interpersonal skills by asking customers about their Mother’s Day plans and making them feel welcomed. “The prices matter. I’ve lived here all my life, I know what people here are willing to pay and what they’re not.” 

For the record: This story was updated with the location where Evelyn Sanchez sold gifts, on Florence Avenue and San Pedro Street.