South side rallies for harassed paletero
Street vendor’s cart tipped on Cinco de Mayo
A viral video of a vendor for Paleteria Yayo being harassed during a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Mitchell Park on Sunday has sparked outrage among community members. Now, south side residents are leading a wider conversation about protecting street vendors.
Paleteros are a common sight on sunny days in Milwaukee and in many Mexican-American communities. They walk miles ringing their bells and pushing their carts through parks and along sidewalks to deliver their icy treats, or paletas.
To many, paleteros are a symbol of hard work and Mexican pride.
In this instance, the paletero wasn’t injured, the cart wasn’t damaged and nothing was stolen, said Rene Adan, coowner of Paleteria Yayo. He said the vendor has asked to not be named.
But Paleteria Yayo’s vendors are often harassed, robbed and hit while walking the streets of Milwaukee, according to Adan. This is just the first time it’s been recorded, he said.
“This happens too frequently,” said co-owner Galy Montes, speaking in Spanish. “We want to reach out to the community to help us find a way to stop our vendors from being assaulted.”
A video of the incident shows a man in a vest run behind the vendor and push his cart onto its side while a crowd watches. The vendor trails after the man and picks up his cart.
On Monday, the man in the vest, Aaron Thompson, visited Paleteria Yayo and apologized to the vendor in person while live on Facebook.
“I am here today to apologize to the Hispanic, Mexican, south side community,” Thompson said in the video. “... It was a joke that went bad. We were just playing around and took it too far.”
Thompson told the Journal Sentinel he did not target the vendor because of his race. He said the incident started after the vendor would not sell him paletas, and that the language barrier escalated the situation.
“People couldn’t understand what he was saying,” Thompson said.
Thompson said he apologized to the vendor after pushing his cart and chose to apologize again on social media to resolve the issue. He plans to clean up Mitchell Park on Saturday with other volunteers “to bring the Black community and the brown community together.”
“The community is always such a great support, and hopefully, they can help us to prevent these kinds of situations.”
Rene Adan Paleteria Yayo co-owner
Adan said Thompson also purchased a few paletas from Paleteria Yayo and gave the vendor about $60 in cash.
Adan appreciates Thompson’s apology, but wants more to be done to ensure the safety of paleteros.
“This is not something that we just stay calm and cross arms (about),” Adan said. “I’m always working with the police and with whoever I need to work with to have my guys safe.”
It is still unclear what exactly transpired during the incident, which was just one of several on Cinco de Mayo. Another video later that day shows the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office arresting two men and removing a gun from the waistband of one man in a large crowd, while someone else films.
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson James Burnett said deputies responded to several calls of rowdy crowds at Mitchell Park on Sunday and that the department is still investigating.
Anthony Canareno, a Milwaukeebased makeup artist and social media influencer, said the video of the vendor broke his heart. He grew up in Milwaukee’s predominantly Latino south side and appreciates the hustle of paleteros, having witnessed them walking miles in all kinds of weather.
After seeing the video, Canareno purchased $200 worth of paletas from Paleteria Yayo and gave them away to kids at Lincoln Avenue Elementary School.
“I didn’t even know that street vendors get harassed like that,” Canareno said. “I thought everyone had as much respect for them as I have for them.”
Milwaukee County Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez, a south side native, said he frequently hears of street vendors being attacked and robbed. He recalled Filigonio Ramirez Montes, who was shot and killed in 2020 while selling corn on the cob on the south side.
Martinez also called out anti-Black sentiment he’s seen on social media since the incident. Many of the people present during the incident with the paletero were Black.
“It’s really not good for our community to be pushing that narrative,” Martinez said. “We still need to work together to make sure that we do what’s best for our neighborhood.”
Marinez said he’s been speaking with Paleteria Yayo and people from the nearby Mitchell Park Domes to find solutions. One idea is to identify the locations where vendors are frequently attacked and robbed so that vendors can avoid those areas. They are also discussing placing cameras in these locations and on the paleta carts, Adan said.
Martinez is also advocating to make Cinco de Mayo a county-sponsored event with better security to prevent future altercations.
Paleteria Yayo is grateful for the community support, Adan said.
“The community is always such a great support, and hopefully, they can help us to prevent these kinds of situations,” Adan said.