From afar, it looks unassuming: rows of multicolored tents bustling with customers. But up close, it’s a cherished yet common scene that dominates summer dining in L.A. — street vendors slice juicy al pastor off a rotating spit, dicing it with a long knife and tossing the meat into a freshly pressed tortilla topped with a pile of chopped white onion and cilantro. Families crowd around the stand, some recording the spectacle with their phones, colorful aguas frescas in hand.
On the border of Westlake and Pico-Union sits El Gato Night Market, a destination for diverse Latino cuisines and communities that takes over an empty parking lot every Thursday through Sunday. On a typical night, roughly 70 to 80 vendors, many of them immigrants, fill the air with a joyous mix of reggaeton music and carne asada smoke that wafts from their grills.
But on June 28, El Gato was down to just 45 vendors. Two days before, there were around 25. After shutting down for two weeks in early June when Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids began to spread through L.A., the market is slowly regaining its footing.
The night market reopened on June 20, in a much smaller lot across the street from its usual home — the same lot where it first opened back in July 2022, when it only had a handful of booths, according to vendor Geofrey Mejia.
“Hopefully by next week we’re back to normal, slowly but surely,” said Mejia, the owner of Nieves Artesanales, his family’s ice cream cart that sells classic Mexican flavors like nuez, or walnut. “Everybody’s struggling right now. A lot of these vendors actually just live off of this, they don’t do anything else.”
Street vendors’ high degree of visibility, especially at night markets, is part of what makes them such an integral aspect of the L.A. food scene — immigrants find tastes of home at markets like El Gato. They also play a large role in keeping the L.A. food scene accessible — but the simple act of coming to work and setting up their carts on city sidewalks puts them at risk of being arrested by ICE.
“It seems like [ICE agents] are just picking up anybody,” Mejia said. “You feel more like they’re profiling at that point.”
Some street vendors have been directly involved in anti-ICE protest efforts, like the trio behind an aguas frescas stand who poured milk onto the faces of tear-gassed protesters as a salve. But as El Gato and other food businesses in L.A. face a dwindling customer base due to the presence of ICE, vendors are forced to choose between their safety and primary source of income.
“People have been afraid to buy, and that really affects vendors like us,” said Favian Salas of Tacos El Champ at El Gato. “If we don’t sell, there is no economy … and it’s affecting everyone.”
Now, the scene at El Gato Night Market is somewhat of a balancing act: Vendors, many of whom worry for their safety and the future of their businesses, show up for work out of necessity — but also to provide comfort and familiarity for customers, most of whom are Latino and often bring their young children.
Knowing that many vendors rely heavily on El Gato for income, Cristian Bautista, one of the night market’s organizers, was reluctant to temporarily close the market last month. Vendor safety has long been a priority for Bautista, who intentionally chose an enclosed private parking lot as the location for El Gato and hires a security guard during the night market’s operating hours. Bautista is also the owner of Pastas Mr. Cat, a stall at the entrance of the night market where he greets customers with steaming pans of fettuccine alfredo and seafood spaghetti.
“The community feels like a family,” Bautista said of the vendors, primarily Latino but also East Asian. “In various places, usually there are only tacos and Mexican food … [At El Gato] there are many people of different countries. … That’s why it’s popular.”
Inside, the night market feels isolated from the city around it, as vendors hand out free samples of pan dulce and carnitas wrapped in soft tortillas and families fill standing tables with smoked ribs, hibachi fried rice and rolled ice cream.
One of El Gato’s first vendors, Mejia has watched the market grow from less than 10 vendors into a late-night destination. The dozens of vendors can draw anywhere from 800 to 1,000 customers on a given night, according to Bautista — a number that has shrunk significantly since El Gato reopened on June 20.
Mejia estimates that about 30% to 40% of the night market’s customers are tourists. Savanna Deyro, a visitor from Las Vegas, came to El Gato on June 26 with her boyfriend and infant son after the couple saw a video of the night market on TikTok.
“We always like to support local businesses and help out the community as much as we can,” Deyro said after buying pupusas from Vicky’s Pupusas, a Salvadoran food stand. “We know that they’re struggling and we want to support them in any way possible, even if we don’t know them.”
As Jocelyn Arevalo, who has been vending with Vicky’s Pupusas at El Gato for about four months, shaped masa for pupusas and threw them onto a flat-top grill, she said that the last few weeks have brought financial uncertainty for vendors.
“We are afraid that something might happen,” Arevalo said. “Customers are a little [scared] too.”
Located just outside downtown L.A., El Gato also serves a number of neighborhood locals. Jonothan Vasquez has been grabbing dinner at the night market, which is down the street from where he lives, every week for more than a year. On June 26, in between bites of a taco from Tacos El Champ, he said that the night market had noticeably fewer customers since it reopened.
“I love to support because it means the difference,” said Vasquez, who added that the good food and customer service is what keeps bringing him back. “This whole country is built on immigrants. … A lot of people don’t realize the impact.”
One of El Gato’s most popular vendors, Tacos El Champ typically draws large crowds as Salas dices carne asada and another employee uses a tortilla press to flatten fresh masa. On June 26, Salas seemed disheartened by the lack of customers. But two days later, as a bustling crowd filled the night market’s aisles, vendors seemed to match the energy — the music was louder and the displays of food and drinks on their front tables were larger. It wasn’t as busy as it was before June 6, but it was a first step nonetheless, said Salas, who takes pride in his Tijuana-style tacos.
“When people try [our tacos], they practically feel like they’re in Mexico,” Salas said. “We hope [the night market] fills up like before.”
Like many businesses around L.A., the vendors of El Gato implore customers to support them as they navigate the night market’s reopening with uncertainty about its future.
“People should come since we have food from all countries, from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico,” said Arevalo, flipping fresh pupusas and portioning out tangy curtido topped with fresh salsa roja. “They should support us. It’s the only source of income we have at the moment.”
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