“I wake up early and all day until eight at night”, Sanchez said via a translator.
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“It broke my heart seeing this man that should be enjoying retirement still working at this age”, Cervantes wrote. He bought 20 paletas for US$50, but chose to also share Mr Sanchez’s story with the community.
Sanchez has spent years selling paletas, pushing his cart for several hours each day, earning just $50 to $60 a day, according to DNAinfo Chicago.
Last Thursday, Joel Cervantes Macías was driving through the neighborhood when he spotted Sanchez struggling to push his cart down the street. He started a GoFundMe campaign for the man which has raised almost $150,000 by Monday. Macias also asked to take Fidencio Sanchez’ picture. Joe Loera, who is an associate of Macías, came up with an idea to launch a GoFundMe page to help support the couple on Friday, with the goal of raising $3,000. He’d found out the vendor, Fidencio Sanchez, had retired but had to recently return to work after the death of his only daughter. His wife, Eladia, used to sell paletas, but switched to sweets because pushing a heavy cart became too physically hard for her.
Incredibly, the page has since raised over $130,000, donated by more than 6,300 strangers.
“He’s a really hardworking gentleman”, Gutierrez said of Sanchez.
Sanchez learned of the fundraiser during while at church on Saturday morning, Gustavo Gutierrez, who supplies Sanchez’s cart, told DNAinfo.
“. He knows, and he’s taking it with a lot of love”, Gutierrez said.
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“The entire community [of] Little Village knows about Mr. Fidencio because for decades he’s always been selling”, Gutierrez said. Which is great in terms of spirit, but we’re concerned, of course, that something could happen to him. We’re trying to raise money to help him with whatever we can. His goal was just to give the older man a little relief from pushing his cart and the widespread response has really touched him, he posted to Facebook. But Sanchez, despite being gifted with the money, plans to continue working.
