Motherhood and Enchiladas Mother shares her challenges, successes as a businesswoman
By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor, with Ruby Muñoz, Editorial Intern Editor’s Note: In this edition, Random Lengths News features a woman balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship. She is an example of how humanity will find a way to survive, if not thrive, even in the midst of a pandemic. She owns Las Palmas Cafe, a Carson restaurant serving authentic Zacatecas cuisine. The restaurant itself celebrated its 60th anniversary at the start of the pandemic.
[See Motherhood, p. 8]
Neighborhood Council leaders weigh in on Buscaino’s $3 million grant fund p. 3 Artists speak on the future of First Thursday Art Walks p. 9
Las Palmas Cafe proprietor Sonia Rodriguez-Fuentes with her children, Brian Dean Pearson and Jacqueline Fuentes. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala
Trio of New Bills Could Fix Badly Broken Port Drayage System By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
unjustly,” said Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a daughter of a port trucker and the author of Senate Bill 338, which would have large retailers liable for trucking company violations, strengthening enforcement and plugging loopholes in SB 1402, passed in 2019. “During the COVID-19 pandemic this included a failure to provide PPE at our ports, the largest ports in the nation,” Gonzalez declared. “Sanitizing shared equipment, notifying workers about potential COVID-19 exposures were non-existent. This is not what California stands for. How can we, as the fifthlargest economy, allow these injustices to continue at [See New Bills, p. 4]
April 29 - May 12, 2021
“Wage theft, unsafe working conditions, no safety net. This is the reality of thousands of port drivers like me,” said Juan Carlos Giraldo at an April 6 press conference. “And it doesn’t just hurt us. It hurts our families and it hurts our communities.” But that could finally start to change with passage of three bills whose proposal to the California legislature was announced that day in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis on top of the long-standing exploitation of drivers misclassified as independent contractors. “Today, we’re saying loud and clear again that we’re not [going to] continue to have our port drivers treated
The face on the plate: A family tradition that made Mother’s Day special p. 10
Real People, Real News, Really Effective
Sonia Rodriguez-Fuentes, 51, is a vanguard of a second generation of entrepreneurs. From her youthful appearance and staff uniform of blue jeans and black Las Palmas T-shirt, she is virtually indistinguishable from the staff with whom she works alongside on a daily basis. Rodriguez-Fuentes is a woman who, despite her sense of guilt about the amount of time the restaurant takes from her and her children, enjoys working sideby-side with her staff, making the restaurant’s longtime clientele happy. “It’s a strange feeling because I want them to know I’m working just as hard as they are,” Rodriguez-Fuentes said. “I have always done my best to understand my employees’ needs, and I try to make our working environment harmonious.” Her two children, 17-year-old Brian Dean Pearson and 9-year-old Jacqueline Fuen-
Port trucker Juan Carlos Giraldo in May 2020 delivering a letter and petition to Jaime L. Lee, president of the Board of Harbor Commissioners demanding protections amid the COVID-19 pandemic. File photo
Worldwide COVID-19 deaths as of April 28, 2021: 3,157,044 • USA: 587,504 • Calif.: 61,524 • LA County: 23,802 For the latest stats visit: www.randomlengthsnews.com/covid19
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