In the streets of Jackson Heights and Corona, when the Christmas decorations were just being dismantled, formal and informal commerce began to prepare two weeks ago for the first great celebration of 2022, which pays tribute to love and friendship. On this occasion, many cross their fingers that it means a day of “economic oxygen”, after the first “weak” days of January. And after two years in which the big parties and normal days were shaken by the pandemic.
In the commercial backbone of thousands of Hispanic families, such as Roosevelt Avenue, in this New York county , already thousands of street vendors bet to offer with time, special arrangements for lovers, after overcoming a Christmas season largely ruined by the omicron variant and a year that although better than the 2019, is described as “a roller coaster ”, for those who sell merchandise on the streets.
This is how the Mexican street vendor, Rosa Carpio, describes it, located on a corner of the station of the 71 St of Jackson Heights, saying in its wake: Flowers for lovers!
“The truth is that the police officers have lowered their guard, with the fines. But they still evict us. They move us. In this case, you can’t save this type of merchandise for better times”, says Rosa, who sells roses with additions of small balloons and teddy bears, which she offers under the roar of the “la Roosevelt” train.
Last week at least 33 street sales of “special details”, alluding to Valentine’s Day, they were counted among the street 74 and the 102 , under the structure that supports the 7 train, in one of the most Hispanic neighborhoods in the Big Apple.
Rosa’s experience, who has sold products derived from each season for more than 5 years, is that each day imposes a “different battle”.
“Obviously, by not having a license, for the City it is something illegal, so to speak. There are days that the officers don’t even see you, other days that they evict you. It depends! It’s like a lottery every day,” said the immigrant from 33 years old and two teenage sons, who at Christmas sold other details.
“It didn’t go bad for me. I was able to survive. Now it’s time to wait for this weekend of lovers. The year before I stood near the bus stops and the same day I sold all my flowers. Construction workers always buy”, he recalled.
Indeed, interactions with New York City Police Department (NYPD) officials and these vendors have been reduced in recent 24 months of pandemic.
The amount of NYPD citations for vendors during the first three quarters of 2021 decreased by 8.5 percent, compared to the same period of the previous year, and by more than one 71 percent from 2019.
However, immigrants like Rosa say that the police approach them less, but civil officials from the Department of Consumers and City Workers (DCWP), verbally tell them constantly that withdraw from certain spaces, otherwise they will be fined.
Buy from your local dealer!
In New York City they are quantified by less 20,000 Informal merchants and organizations such as the Street Vendors Project, on this date, began the campaign on social networks entitled : The most beautiful flowers come from street vendors.
This is a way of expressing support for thousands of families, in the midst of the challenge of passing legislation that increases the number number of licenses for this mass of informal workers, a large proportion of whom are immigrant women. to educate vendors about the specific regulations where they cannot be located, instead of penalizing them.
Formal business awaits more sales
Likewise, already in an established business, with fourteen years in the market of special arrangements, the young Guatemalan Sheny Lilian, who works in a flower shop in the neighborhood of Elmhurst, in Queens, believes that this time is always positive for business in general. And she has no doubt that this year will be better than the previous one, when there were more fears about the pandemic
“Details can be obtained from $5. People take even a flower. But also larger details, baskets, teddy bears, there is everything. They have already been moving. Those who have a partner expect at least one detail, “says Sheny while preparing combinations of chocolates, stuffed animals and flowers, the most common gifts this season.
According to the National Federation of Retailers ( NRF), with an almost similar proportion in all large cities in the country, Valentine’s Day is the fifth largest spending event after the winter holidays and Mother’s Day.
It is likely that this year’s celebration will also help boost the economy, because consumer spending on this type of holiday generates almost 52% of the country’s total production.
A better scenario for small businesses, but…
In the midst of this commercial expectation, there are also workers and owners of the long row of food stalls and restaurants on “Roosevelt” in Queens. Everything indicates that this Monday night February, you will have a better customer scenario than the previous year, when there were still pandemic restrictions for domestic service.
“Last year we could accept only the 25% of customers inside, because the vaccine thing was just getting started. We are now at 52% of capacity only for vaccinated, but let’s see what happens, because with this inflation, people are limited in spending,” he commented. Vicente Lorenzo, from Puebla, who works in an Ecuadorian restaurant in Corona.
Some merchants estimate that this Monday will allow the cash register to be balanced for the slow billing days of the first month of the year and after months in where the public health crisis subjected small Hispanic businesses in the Big Apple to a “survival test.”
In this sense, Colombian merchant Carolina Reyes optimistically bought some balloons to decorate your jewelry stand in Jackson Heights.
“The pandemic taught us entrepreneurs that we must go ahead and bet on our businesses with enthusiasm, after the breaks that we have nest. Now this forces us to reinvent ourselves. This Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to offer something different and that’s where we are. We know that we are going to recover,” shared the woman from Cali who arrived in New York just months before the pandemic closures.
Curiously, in Colombia this day is not celebrated in February but in September, which is why immigrants from that country in New York commemorate it twice a year.
“For some reason in my country Valentine’s Day is not in February, so here we celebrate it twice”, limited the merchant.
For her part, the Dominican Teresa Acosta, from 40 years, assures that he completely ignores this celebration to which he attributes a “merely commercial sense”.
“Like mother’s day, father and all these parties, personally I don’t give importance to them because they are invented strategies to increase sales. Any day is a good day to celebrate your loved ones”, she concluded.
As in the United States, Valentine’s Day is a holiday of roots, in which love and friendship are celebrated with the exchange of gifts. In most Latin American countries this tradition is followed, but with other names. For example, in Mexico the day of love and friendship is celebrated, in Guatemala and Peru it is identified as the day of affection.
A love story: Al altar 27 years later
This weekend, prior to Valentine’s Day, Salvadoran Blanca Platero walked down Roosevelt Avenue in Queens finalizing the details for her wedding. She was looking for a quote for flower arrangements, checking some wedding dresses and checking some details. Her “boyfriend”, after 11 years civilly married, now asked him to take her to the altar and thus reaffirm a commitment of love, accompanied by five children, a grandson, and all migratory history in the country.
“We arrived together and built a beautiful family here in New York. It’s been years of struggle, trust and work. I am very excited that we are now getting married in the church. I feel very happy and really in love like the first r day”, said the Central American.
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The wedding of Blanca Platero and Julio Mejías will be next September at the Loretto Church in Nassau. In the ceremony they will seal what they describe as a history of trust and respect that began when they were just a few teenagers in the town of Cojutepeque.
“We have celebrated Valentine’s Day all these years, as if it were the first day. And now this year that we come from very difficult times, because we lost several loved ones to the pandemic, he asked me to marry him again, as a way to celebrate our life and our family. Without a doubt, he is the love of my life”, said Blanca.
Why is it the day of love and friendship ?
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Several legends intermingle with historical facts to try to explain the origin of the celebration of Valentine’s Day, but of all the possible theories the most accepted is the one that links Valentine’s Day with the figure of the saint, a priest who, according to imprecise records, lived in Rome in the third century, at the beginning of the expansion of the Christian faith.
Legend has it that the then emperor, Claudius II, had forbidden young people to marry to prevent men from being reluctant to enlist in the Roman army and willing to go to war free from love ties. The priest Valentin dedicated himself to secretly marrying young lovers. These practices reached the ears of the emperor and caused the priest to be arrested and finally executed on 14 February of the year 102, hence that is the date on which the day of the saint and of love is celebrated.