Faustino Castro sat on a green plastic stool at the northwestern corner of 20th and Mission streets, shaded from the 75-degree heat. Dressed in a red and black zip-up and a black baseball cap that read “San Francisco,” he waved and said hello to a half-dozen people while he tried to get others to stop and see how fresh the cut papaya, mango, watermelon and jicama looked.
“They’re fresh and dulzitas,” or sweet, Castro said to a man who looked tempted for half a second.
The fruit was cut in chunks and tightly packed together in plastic containers. The tubs sat on a larger plastic bowl full of ice that melted with the afternoon heat. The fruits, however, are only part of Castro’s main business: paletas, or ice cream of all kinds.
Originally from Liberaltepec, a small town in central Mexico’s state of Guerrero, the 60-year-old Castro has lived in the United States for 19 years, and has been a palatero for 17 of them. For him, he said, the last couple years have been some of the happiest, because one of his six children moved from Mexico to come work with him.
“It’s so nice having him here with me now. I miss my family so much, but everything I do, I do it for them,” Castro said. “It’s so lonely, being here without them. Now, I feel like there’s someone who cares about me here, and someone who I can go out with.”
Castro said he wakes up every morning at 5 a.m. to drive from his house in Richmond to a market in Oakland to buy only the freshest fruit. He then goes back home and cuts the fruit for himself and for his son, who also sells paletas and fruits. He then drives back to Oakland to a warehouse to fill his cart with ice cream.
And then he leaves for the city. On a normal day, he walks between two and three miles, past schools and through parks, and then heads to his corner at 20th and Mission streets to finish his sales.
Castro’s eyes turned red and teary when he started talking about his family and the memories he treasures from his “beautiful” pueblito as a child.
“I used to climb trees, help my family grow corn, pumpkins and beans,” said Castro with a big smile on his face. “I used to feed the animals too. It was a beautiful life.”
When asked about his experience with the police and vending permits, he said that they always leave him alone, with the exception of one occasion around six years ago, when two patrol cars stopped him and asked for the permit.
“I told them that I didn’t have one, and they immediately arrested me and took all my fruit and the cart,” said Castro. “They took me to Bryant Street and kept me there for a few hours. I had to go to court to get my cart back, but I never recovered the merchandise.”
Castro said that another difficult time for him was during the pandemic, because his sales dropped to almost nothing. Sales are still low compared to pre-pandemic levels, he said. On a good day, he will make $100, and half that a bad day, he said.
Despite the difficulties he’s encountered as an immigrant, he said he is happy just to have the opportunity to work.
“I’ll do it for another year or so, and then I’ll move back home, to finally be reunited with my family,” said Castro. “My message to young people is just to work and save, because you never know what life can throw at you.”
Great man . We Almost lost him a couple years ago . Thankfully got an organ transplant and back to bringing joy to everyone’s faces . SHAME SHAME on Racist police . Time to defund the policia foreverrrrrrr
nice, thanks for sharing this gentleman’s story.