I’m Not the Only Girl Who Sells Tamales
Written by Valentina Hernandez
In early January, an article caught the attention of many people when it was reported that Elizeth Arguelles sold tamales in order to pay for her college education. What popped out in the article was that she was a DREAMer, those under the protection of DACA.
The sad reality is that Arguelles is not the only young DACA student in the country to support her education and everyday needs by selling food. This issue hits us home with the story of a fellow DREAMer, Tania Hernandez.
Tania Hernandez is a 20-year-old nursing student here at Delaware State University who is under the Opportunity Scholarship. In an interview, Hernandez opened up about selling tamales to her neighbors as a child. She shared that her family started out purely out of need as her parents had recently been laid off that November.
She was only seven years old when her sister, Dagnna, was born and with so many bills, they began selling tamales. Tania’s father cooked the tamales in their apartment, and they carried them around in a baby stroller.
“My mom and I went under the rain and knocked around the apartment complex because there were a lot of Hispanics,” she said. “Since I was a little girl, I did the knocking to make people feel bad and buy tamales.”
From then on, the family would sell tamales every Friday and Sunday all day. They eventually expanded into traditional street food items such as esquites, champurrados, and even ceviche and selling out of their minivan.
By the time she was sixteen, she was granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals enacted by former President Obama. With a working permit, Tania obtained a stable job to support some of her expenses but that didn’t stop her family from selling food.
It is a common practice that Hispanic parents incorporate their children in activities that bring in extra income and Tania’s parents used that to their advantage. “They taught me how to manage money, how manage a business; taught me morals and responsibility,” she said.
“I was never ashamed to be called ‘la hija de los tamaleros’ because it filled me with pride that even at the worst of times, my parents always found a way.”
Her experience in management has led to her serving as the current president of the DACA (Dreamers Activism and Community Alliance) organization on campus. And we can’t wait to see what she does n