On Carnaval weekend, San Francisco comes together to celebrate Latin American and Caribbean cultural arts and traditions with a parade, food and dance. But it’s also a chance for creatives and entrepreneurs to set up their stalls to show their wares.
All day on Saturday and Sunday, vendors lined up along Harrison Street, from 17th to 24th streets, selling everything from custom Crocs charms to a full suite of San Francisco sporting gear.
Many of the vendors are Carnaval veterans. Abraham Pando, originally from Peru, wearing a 49ers cap, runs a stand called Stylish Hats. As the name would suggest, he sells hats of all kinds: Fedoras, pork pies, caps, cowboy hats — and he has been doing so at Carnaval for 25 years.
In the past, Pando tried to sell other things, like T-shirts, but the hats have always done better, he said. He switches out the styles, which he gets from New York, every season. These days, the fuzzy bucket hats are doing well, he said.
Ramón Perez, another vendor, also relies on events like Carnaval to make an income. He runs a stall called On Stick. As one might imagine, he solely sells food items that are served on a skewer: Chicken kebab, mango, potatoes and zucchini.
Perez is based in Santa Clara and worked in construction until last year. Now, he works in food vending full-time. On Saturday, the potato skewers were doing well, and the stall was busy with customers wanting to eat while walking, making a meal on a stick the perfect food.
Along the corridor, there was mild sensory overload with music playing, the smells of different grills and people bustling to get a good view of various performances along the way.
Other vendors are new to Carnaval. Kristina Mendoza came into the city from Martinez to sell custom Crocs charms, which she designs.
Mendoza and her husband Miguel started making the charms during the pandemic. “We’re in the medical field, and everyone was wearing crocs,” she said. So she started making charms for them.
Now, they offer 2,000 different designs, including some inspired by local sights, like the Golden Gate Bridge and streetcars. Miguel, a pharmacist, organizes and stores them in their garage in medical cabinets (as he would with prescriptions).
Mendoza, who mostly sells online, was keen to get the word out to some new customers during the festivals. She stood smiling, greeting customers outside her stall. “I try to reel them in,” she said. “It’s easy, I just look at people’s feet.”
Other spots seemed to naturally attract a crowd, even towards the end of the day when many stalls had packed up. At one makeshift stall, inside a garage on Harrison Street near 22nd Street, some friends were cooking up crepes to sell at $5 a pop.
“We’re busier than we have been all day,” they said.
