When Cinthia Soriao, Edgar Hernandez and Sesarin Hernandez set up their aguas frescas stand with an extra gallon of milk on Sunday morning, they never imagined they’d be using it to quell the burn of tear gas hours later.
The trio sells hot dogs and aguas frescas off the historic LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, next to the Church of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels. Most weekends their customers consist of churchgoers after service or a baptism. On Sunday they were protesters locked in a dramatic clash with the Los Angeles Police Department and the National Guard over a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps occurring across L.A. And in the process of serving them, Soriao and the Hernandez brothers ducked fireworks, hid beneath their food stand and poured surplus milk into the eyes of protesters who had inhaled tear gas.
Like multiple street vendors, this trio helped nourish the city during a fraught weekend that saw more than 70 arrests, widespread vandalism and cars set ablaze. Some vendors sold hot dogs on the 110 Freeway as protesters and law enforcement took to the stretch of highway on foot. Others set up fruit carts near City Hall. Community-aid group Food Not Bombs DTLA distributed free plant-based meals from a bike trailer, its hand-painted sign emblazoned with a raised fist clutching a carrot.
While serving water, juice and pepper-topped hot dogs during the fray, Soriao and the Hernandezes found themselves at the center of the action Sunday — the third day of protests — nearly being fired upon by the police.
Cinthia Soriao grills hot dogs at her stand next to the Church of Our Lady Queen of the Angels in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
“We were in the middle of everything going on,” Edgar Hernandez said Monday afternoon. “The cops were shooting tear gas and there was a point where the barrier was right here, and they were about to shoot us. We ducked under the table and a cop said, ‘Oh, they’re just selling.’ We got lucky.”
Hernandez operates the stand with his girlfriend, Soriao, and his brother. Normally, he said, they would close their cart in late afternoon, but business was so lucrative that they stayed until 9 p.m. They outlasted all other vendors on the stretch, with one even abandoning a hand-written sign for tacos and tamales as they fled.
From behind their rainbow umbrellas and a row of colorful drinks, the aguas trio witnessed rubber bullets, explosions, tear gas, tagging and screaming for hours. Across the plaza, multiple driverless Waymo taxis were set ablaze.
“We didn’t know they were gonna end up here,” Soriao said. “We thought everybody was gonna stay at the freeway, and then they came this way with fireworks. It was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s scary.’”
Many of their usual customers stayed home, afraid to attend church Sunday. But the vendors found purpose serving their new clientele, and when the protesters said they had only limited means, Soriao and the Hernandezes gave them discounts.
Many, they said, were thirsty after a full day of marching and activism. Some approached with red eyes, and the vendors poured their surplus milk onto their faces to ease the effects of tear gas. Many, Edgar Hernandez said, rejoined the protests as soon as their eyes had been treated.
“We hopefully make it in the history books as the only vendors here who stayed,” he said.
Stefany Gonzalez grills bacon-wrapped hot dogs in Grand Park during a protest for the release of union leader David Huerta on June 9, 2025.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
On the other side of the 101 Freeway, Stefany Gonzalez sold her bacon-wrapped hot dogs downtown for three hours on Sunday — until her mom told her to come home because the protests seemed too dangerous. By late Monday morning, she was back at it.
Gonzalez operates her food business with her mother, who moved to Los Angeles from El Salvador and taught Gonzalez how to cook. Typically the young vendor sets up her cart near the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, often serving downtown office workers on their lunch breaks. Over the weekend she found her clientele to be primarily protesters and felt she had to leave when she saw people throwing objects on Sunday afternoon.
She tried again because “it is important to support the community,” Gonzalez said.
When she returned the next day she found a different kind of protest downtown and made her way to the center of it.
On Monday afternoon Gonzalez sold bacon-wrapped hot dogs and seared serrano peppers on a path in Grand Park, where a peaceful rally called for the release of activist and union President David Huerta. Later that day, Huerta was released from custody after his arrest related to the ICE raids.
Former state Assembly candidate Justine Gonzalez came to Grand Park to attend the rally for Huerta but couldn’t find a nearby restaurant or coffee shop. Thankfully, she said, there were street vendors.
On June 9, 2025, Juan Lux parked his cart selling fruit and hot dogs outside Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
“I was so worried, everything’s closed,” she said. “I came today to support the protest and join it, but also I need to drink water so I was really happy to find a vendor. I was worried how far I’d have to travel.”
She’d found the frutero Juan Lux, who typically sells near the Federal Building but set up his hot-dog cart and fruit stand at the corner of Grand Park, next to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, for the rally.
“It’s important to help out the protesters,” Lux said. Behind him, in the park, the crowd hoisted “Resist Fascism” banners and “ICE OUT” signs. “I’ve done it before with other protests, and I’m just happy to be out here, helping out.”
