Two separate July 4 confrontations have put two Long Beach street vendors out of work, but residents have stepped in to raise over $50,000 combined to help them bear the financial burden until they can return to selling.
Eliu Ramirez has been selling raspados, esquites and elotes in the Washington neighborhood for 16 years, he said.
He typically sticks to that neighborhood, conversing with neighbors and his usual customers as he weaves along his daily route.
But on July 4, he decided to try to make extra money by setting up near the Belmont Pier during a crowded holiday weekend.
That evening, as the sun was about to set, Ramirez returned from the bathroom to find a man standing next to his cart.
The man claimed to be “the beach’s owner,” Ramirez said, and demanded he leave. Ramirez responded that the beach is a public place, but that if two police officers standing nearby requested he leave, then he would.
The man then stormed off and said he would get someone to make Ramirez move, Ramirez said.
He went back to selling, then the next thing he knew, a different man walked up to him, sucker punched him in his right eye without saying a word, then took off running before police could apprehend him.
The attack left Ramirez with a fractured nose, his right eye completely shut from the swelling and a hefty hospital bill.
He also has a lasting fear of another attack by the same group of men who Ramirez said threaten street vendors and make them pay for permission to sell in certain areas.
That fear has kept him from going out selling again, even in his own neighborhood, since the attack.
His wife organized an online fundraiser to help pay the bills until he can return to selling. As of Friday afternoon, it had raised just over $17,600.
Ramirez said he has held various cooking jobs in restaurants since moving to Long Beach from Mexico more than two decades ago, but selling as a street vendor has been the best way to pay the bills.
It’s also a great way to connect with neighbors. He likes cutting the neighborhood children a break if they’re a dollar short for a snack or giving out a free soda on a hot summer day.
As of Friday afternoon, police said they had not arrested Ramirez’s attacker.
Another vendor put out of work
Another street vendor who Ramirez knows, Pedro, had his ice cream tricycle damaged by a driver on July 4.
The incident, captured on video that quickly spread across social media, showed a Mercedes-Benz driver strike Pedro’s tricycle in a crosswalk near Shoreline Village.
In the video, Pedro walks away from the tricycle to get video of the car’s temporary license plate, but the driver reverses and drives a short distance away.
In an online fundraiser, Pedro’s sister Edith wrote that the driver “immediately fled,” leaving the tricycle “completely destroyed” and Pedro unable to speak up to advocate for himself in the aftermath because he is deaf and non-verbal.
The tricycle represented “his entire livelihood, his passion and his independence,” she wrote.
Andrea Moran, a Long Beach police spokesperson, said the driver did not flee but remained at the scene, and officers helped the driver exchange insurance information with Pedro.
As of Friday afternoon, the fundraiser to get Pedro a new cart had raised more than $41,600.