As the heat of the day began to cool in the evening, two dozen volunteers gathered in the parking lot outside the Food 4 Less on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Arleta. Grocery lists in hand, titled with just the first name of a stranger, they grabbed shopping carts and got to work.
With Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducting raids across Los Angeles, the Northeast Valley-based mutual aid group Amor Al Valle wanted to figure out how to serve and help their community. Three weeks ago, they decided to start doing grocery runs for their undocumented neighbors who are afraid to leave the safety of their homes.
“A lot of families are not going out. They’re not working,” said Daniel Flores, an organizer with Amor Al Valle. “We can provide a little bit of help and some financial relief for them.”
Amor Al Valle is very intentional about the groceries they deliver, said Daniel Flores’ sister, Maria Flores. They are not delivering donated canned goods, but rather shopping specifically for the items that these families need and use.
“Our parents were immigrants,” said Maria Flores, “and I know my mom will go out if she doesn’t have the frijoles that she needs at home.”
Food is comfort, food is care, she said, and providing a household with items they normally use can protect families from putting themselves at risk by running to the store.
The group receives detailed grocery lists from families in hiding and uses funds collected through donations to purchase those items. Volunteers then help to shop for and deliver the groceries.
“A lot of people show up in different ways. Some people go to marches, have protests. Some people share stuff online. Some people are afraid to go out, or can’t go out to protest, and this is the way we show up,” said Daniel Flores.
The first grocery run Amor Al Valle had 10 volunteers. After streamlining their process and as more volunteers reached out, the group was able to increase that number, providing for 23 local families in the second grocery run.
“Really enjoy this time,” Daniel Flores told the volunteers before entering the supermarket. “You’re doing something great for families and our communities.”
Taking Action
As ICE activity increased in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, Roxana Arguelles couldn’t passively watch the news any longer – she needed to take some action.
“People are being abducted, kidnapped off the streets, without due process,” said Arguelles. “I can’t just stay here and not do anything.”
Now a mother of young children, she decided that putting her body in danger by protesting was no longer an option. Not knowing where to begin, Arguelles attended a local community meeting at the nonprofit Pueblo y Salud, where she connected with Amor Al Valle.
Delivering groceries to those who are afraid to leave their homes because of their immigration status, Arguelles said, was something tangible that she could do immediately to help her community, without putting herself at risk.
“People need the basics. People need to be able to feed their kids. People need to be able to stay hygienic. People need to be able to keep taking their medications,” said Arguelles.
“I’m in a position where I can help them, so that’s what I’m going to do,” she continued. “I would hope, if I were in that situation, if I were too afraid to come out, that someone would worry enough about me and my kids to make sure that we’re okay.”
Arguelles and her siblings were born and raised in the valley. Both her parents emigrated from Mexico as teenagers in search of the same kinds of work opportunities that many migrate here for today. They gained their citizenship in the early 1990s and have now lived in the U.S. for around 50 years.
“The system has worked for us,” acknowledged Arguelles, “but at the same time, I’m not blind to the fact that it doesn’t work for everybody.”
Before, the raids felt close to her community, yet distant from her reality.
The first delivery Arguelles made was down the street from an area and church she frequented as a teenager. The woman Arguelles met that day is a street vendor who hadn’t left her home in over a week.
“It just made everything so real,” said Arguelles. “It wasn’t just something that I was posting about on Instagram. Here is a family who is afraid to come out of their doors, literally afraid to go to the market to buy eggs, because they’re at risk of being swept off the street and never seeing each other again. Now it was staring me in the face.”
Hoy Por Ellos y Mañana Por Nosotros
“Latinos, we’re very hard-working people, and we’re not used to asking for help,” said Maria Flores. “We’re very proud of what we do, and we work hard for it. Even asking for groceries takes a lot from our families.”
In a society that can often feel hyper-individualistic, said Daniel Flores, Amor Al Valle was started with the goal of creating a network where the community could feel comfortable relying on one another.
“We started this organization [a year ago] with the foundation of just bringing community together,” said Daniel Flores. “Having community care.”
He recited a quote: “hoy por ellos y mañana por nosotros,” “today for them and tomorrow for us.”
The raids aren’t distant. They aren’t a war halfway around the world that one can easily turn a blind eye to. Daniel Flores was at the Lowe’s in Pacoima when Border Patrol agents attacked a local tamalera. His mother has a stand at the San Fernando Swap Meet and knows the vendors who are afraid to set up. These are their neighbors, their family members, their friends, their community.
“When it’s in your backyard, I think it’s a little scarier,” said fellow Amor Al Valle organizer, Beatriz Aguilera. “[There’s] a lot of stuff that’s unknown, and I think that’s what the scary part is – that no one truly knows that they are safe.”
She added that when the “people who are supposed to be helping us, protecting us, providing us with these things, are not doing their job,” it forces the community to step up and provide for one another.
“If they’re not gonna do it, then we’re gonna do it,” she said. “We’re gonna do it for each other, and we’re gonna show up for each other.”
Despite the difficult times that immigrant communities are experiencing right now, Daniel Flores noted that some good is emerging from this: people are stepping up to help in whatever way they can, and a more unified community of care is forming.
“We all show up in different ways,” said Daniel Flores. “It’s important to recognize that whatever it is that you’re doing, even if it’s as small as sharing a post, it’s really big.”
Saturday, July 5, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Amor Al Valle will be co-hosting a fundraiser at Shift Our Ways Collective in Arleta with Voces Unidas Pacoima. The event will have art raffles, live music, food and Anti-ICE shirts designed by Arguelles. Proceeds will go towards street vendor buyouts and purchasing groceries.
You can purchase shirts directly from Arguelles by visiting her Instagram @la.nopaletera and picking them up from The Midnight Hour Records in the City of San Fernando.
Amor Al Valle
Instagram: @amoralvalle818
Venmo: @amoralvalle