The outpouring of support for an elderly flower vendor in South Los Angeles will help him return to Mexico to reunite with his family, he said.<\/p>\n
Eighty-two-year-old street vendor Edmundo, who declined to share his last name, said flowers have always been part of his life. It became the source of his income after he crossed into the U.S. by himself more than 50 years ago to establish a living and provide for his family in Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how I pay the rent,\u201d he said in Spanish.<\/p>\n
Edmundo said he\u2019s gotten used to the grind of street vending and said that despite recent immigration raids in Los Angeles, he continues working to provide for his children. That\u2019s why when social worker Helen Alvarez purchased a bouquet from him a week ago, she couldn\u2019t help but worry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw him, my heart just melted,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cHe reminded me of my grandpa; even at his age, still hardworking, still wanting to provide for himself. He was risking everything being outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fearing Edmundo may be targeted by federal agents, Alvarez got to know him and decided to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, he\u2019s part of my family now because he doesn\u2019t have family here right now,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, he\u2019s important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alvarez set up a GoFundMe account on the street vendor\u2019s behalf and was able to raise $20,000 for him within a week. Edmundo said he plans to take the donations and retire from selling flowers to return to Mexico with his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ll rest a bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alvarez said her push to help him out stemmed from her wanting to know that despite being alone in the U.S., he\u2019s important. She\u2019s now happy that the online fundraiser will help him reunite with his loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait for him to be with his family and I hope to still be able to be connected to him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Grateful, Edmundo said he\u2019s eternally thankful for Alvarez\u2019s help.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s the kind of person who you don\u2019t find so easily,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The outpouring of support for an elderly flower vendor in South Los Angeles will help him return to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,409,2961,224,5337,7617,7618],"class_list":{"0":"post-6060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-south-la","15":"tag-south-los-angeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114728667982873299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}