A pair of immigrants
say their lives running a food truck at night and cleaning homes during the day are “a dream.”
Evelyn Parada and Carlo Chavéz spend their days scrubbing vacation homes, but their work doesn’t end there. Late into the night, they serve steak sandwiches from their food truck to tourists and theme park workers ending their shifts.
The two immigrants find joy in what they do — giving their all at both cleaning and cooking.
“It’s a dream,” says Parada, who would love to open a second food truck someday with Chavéz’s family and build an “empire.”
“We’re working hard for what we want,’’ she says.
Their day starts with Parada making Chavéz strong coffee before they go to clean their first rental house in Polk County at 10:05 a.m.
The two-bedroom, sandycolored house is in a neighborhood where all the houses seem identical, with pastel facades and screened-in porches.
Chavéz, 29, and Parada, 31, hardly speak to each other inside.
“Talking wastes time,” Parada says.
Instead, they get to work. They make a twin bed with military precision, smoothing out the wrinkles and putting fresh pillow cases on in about a minute.
Parada holds a cleaning bottle in each hand, like dueling pistols, as she sprays the bathroom.
Chavéz, who helped his mother clean houses at 18, swipes the smudges from the glass porch door.
He moves fast, but it is easier this way. If he stops, the tiredness might seep through.
The night before, late orders kept them at the food truck until 2 a.m. Chavéz collapsed onto his bed, too exhausted to take a shower and clean off the smell of grease. He finally fell asleep