Paleteros: A History of Mexican Ic eCream Street Vendors in the San Francisco Bay Area

A common strategy for many recent migrants is the clustering around a particular locale
with other co-ethnic members as a way to make living in their new environment much more
palatable. This includes the formation of certain ethnic enclaves, common in many urban centers
that include Chinatowns, Little Mexicos, or Little Italys, that serve as a necessary cultural hub
that provides information on resources like housing, job opportunities, or support networks for
other arriving co-ethnic migrants. In some cases, migrants even cluster around a particular
profession that often become synonymous with said groups. In my thesis, I focus on Mexican
Ice-Cream street vendors, colloquially known as Paleteros, in order to better understand the
history of recent Mexican immigration and the social conditions by which these migrants choose
street food vending, an otherwise highly visible profession. I play close attention to the
inception, growth, and proliferation of the Ice-Cream street vending business by interviewing
both street vendors and ice-cream street vending business owners located throughout the San
Francisco Bay Area. In doing so, the ensuing thesis strives to add to the growing literature on
studies pertaining to small, informal businesses that are largely operated by Latinx immigrants as
well as examining the historical and social conditions that promulgated an otherwise
understudied topic