Grantee Profile

VAMOS Unidos: Organizing New York City's Immigrant Street Vendors

From the beginning, North Star Fund has been at the intersection of immigrant rights and labor organizing. In New York, a city of immigrants and a city of commerce, both have always been inextricably intertwined. Street vending is a time-honored way for recent immigrants to grab a toe hold in our region's economy.

VAMOS Unidos, a North Star Fund grantee since 2007 and a recipient of the Frederick Douglas Award at our 2009 Community Gala, organizes Latino immigrant food vendors. The group began in 2007 as four people meeting in a Bronx living room. Now, two years later, VAMOS Unidos has over 260 members and organizes street vendors throughout the city.

Street vending can provide flexibility and the opportunity to benefit directly from your own hard work. It offers mothers with young children a way to make a living and still be home when the kids come home from school. However, vending regulations restrict immigrants from participating in this industry. According to Rafael Samanez, the group's dynamic young director, "There are an estimated 20,000 street vendors in New York City, but only 6,000 available licenses. Arrests are frequent, and fines are stiff - $1000 for the first violation. If you make $50 a day, that fine is insurmountable."

The fines create additional financial burdens for street vendors who are struggling to sustain their businesses. Jennifer Arieta, the VAMOS Unidos Development Manager, explained that Latino immigrant vendors sell food in low-income communities, the neighborhoods hit hardest by the economic crisis. As a result, vending sales are down and many VAMOS Unidos members have stopped vending all together.

The member-leaders of VAMOS Unidos advocate for fairer vending regulations that will provide more permits and protect the economic rights of low-income people. To get the new regulation passed members have formed relationships with several city council members and ally organizations. Members are doing grassroots organizing to gain support from additional City Council members and are developing a research project to prove the economic benefits for New York City of granting more vending licenses.

The work of VAMOS Unidos is guided by members who meet regularly to make organizational decisions and coordinate actions. Members also discuss issues affecting street vendors such as immigration and the global trade systems that drive some Latinos to immigrate to New York with the hopes of finding employment opportunities.

Members develop their leadership skills in trainings on organizing, outreach, advocacy and media relations. The member-leaders use their skills to organize vendors and recruit new members. Members also receive benefits like taking free English classes with Teachers Unite, a North Star Fund grantee since 2007 that organizes teachers to demand equity in New York City communities, particularly in schools. Berta Camacho, the Co-Founder of VAMOS Unidos, said vendors join VAMOS Unidos because of the knowledge, skills and support that they receive from the organization.

In addition to providing VAMOS Unidos with crucial early funding, North Star Fund has helped connect VAMOS Unidos to a broader network of movement builders. According to Rafael, "North Star Fund staff has been instrumental in exposing us to other donors and opportunities for organizational growth."

Jenny views North Star Fund as, "one of the few foundations that takes the risk to invest in new groups when they are just starting out, and we can see the results."