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The Aguirre Family
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CNN Interview With Ricardo Aguirre
This week, CNN aired a devastating interview with an Arizona local, Ricardo Aguirre, who in a few short months lost his business and 8 family members to the Coronavirus, had his food truck repossessed, is facing eviction, expecting his first daughter in November, and has almost a million dollars in medical bills.
Please donate what you can to help Ricardo and his family.
Below is an overview of Ricardo Aguirre's story.
Read Full Aguirre Story On CNN Here
Over a course of 10 years, the Aguirre family built up its business. They went from selling tamales from the back of a minivan to running a popular food truck and a successful catering business in Phoenix -- Tamales y Tacos Puebla -- with a long list of corporate and wedding clients.
In wake of the COVID pandemic, when Arizona -- like other states -- began putting restrictions on businesses and asking people to stay home in an effort to stop the coronavirus from spreading, the Aguirre's business dried up almost overnight.
Then, despite all precautions against the virus, a family member got sick. Then another and another and another. Now, seven months after the shutdown, seven people in Ricardo Aguirre's extended family and his father, Jesús, 67, have died of Covid-19 complications.
"I don't want to cry, because I know God has something better for me," said an emotional Aguirre, 42, while standing in a trailer containing everything that's left of his business.
"I feel so incompetent," he said.
Before the shutdown, the family's food truck business was thriving. They had a prep kitchen in downtown Phoenix to prepare food for catering.
Cooking is in the family's DNA. Aguirre's grandfather had a bakery in Mexico City and was known for his "superior" French bread, Aguirre said, and his grandmother was a chef at a cafe in Sanborns, a popular department store there.
But within seconds of the shutdown, Aguirre said, customers began canceling. All of the jobs that were scheduled for the next year were gone, along with the deposits the customers had made.
"My checking account went negative," Aguirre said. "It was just like, literally a matter of seconds, when I started seeing my livelihood go away."
Aguirre, his wife, both his parents, and two of his three sons were infected.
His mother and father had long hospital stays and were eventually intubated. Though at one point he seemed to be getting better, Aguirre's father died September 11.
His mother still struggles with pulmonary issues from the disease.
"She's not 100%, she's about 60-65% better, but she's here," Aguirre said.
The family members were careful -- wearing masks and using hand sanitizer constantly -- and Aguirre says he has no idea how they contracted the virus.
With no way to make payments, the family's food truck was repossessed, and Aguirre lost the prep kitchen, too.
And with no health insurance, Aguirre's family faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills, showing CNN bills that neared $1 million.
Health insurance, Aguirre said, was just not affordable. "It's literally another house payment," he said.
Aguirre has applied for small business loans but was turned down because money for the program ran out.
Figuring out where to go from here isn't easy. Aguirre is weighing an offer to drive a truck, but that would mean leaving his pregnant wife and his sick mother.
And investing in getting the family business back up and running carries the risk of getting shut down again in the predicted surge of coronavirus infections over the fall and winter.
This 60-year-old short-order cook is facing eviction as the pandemic economy claims more victims
Next month, the Aguirre's are expecting their first daughter, and she will be named after her grandmother and grandfather: Guadalupe De Jesús.
"We were ready to have a new baby, because we felt that we were ready financially, and we were ready emotionally to take care of another human being," Aguirre said.
"Now, with this going on, I just ask God for strength to get me by another day. That's all I ask for."
This week, CNN aired a devastating interview with an Arizona local, Ricardo Aguirre, who in a few short months lost his business and 8 family members to the Coronavirus, had his food truck repossessed, is facing eviction, expecting his first daughter in November, and has almost a million dollars in medical bills.
Please donate what you can to help Ricardo and his family.
Below is an overview of Ricardo Aguirre's story.
Read Full Aguirre Story On CNN Here
Over a course of 10 years, the Aguirre family built up its business. They went from selling tamales from the back of a minivan to running a popular food truck and a successful catering business in Phoenix -- Tamales y Tacos Puebla -- with a long list of corporate and wedding clients.
In wake of the COVID pandemic, when Arizona -- like other states -- began putting restrictions on businesses and asking people to stay home in an effort to stop the coronavirus from spreading, the Aguirre's business dried up almost overnight.
Then, despite all precautions against the virus, a family member got sick. Then another and another and another. Now, seven months after the shutdown, seven people in Ricardo Aguirre's extended family and his father, Jesús, 67, have died of Covid-19 complications.
"I don't want to cry, because I know God has something better for me," said an emotional Aguirre, 42, while standing in a trailer containing everything that's left of his business.
"I feel so incompetent," he said.
Before the shutdown, the family's food truck business was thriving. They had a prep kitchen in downtown Phoenix to prepare food for catering.
Cooking is in the family's DNA. Aguirre's grandfather had a bakery in Mexico City and was known for his "superior" French bread, Aguirre said, and his grandmother was a chef at a cafe in Sanborns, a popular department store there.
But within seconds of the shutdown, Aguirre said, customers began canceling. All of the jobs that were scheduled for the next year were gone, along with the deposits the customers had made.
"My checking account went negative," Aguirre said. "It was just like, literally a matter of seconds, when I started seeing my livelihood go away."
Aguirre, his wife, both his parents, and two of his three sons were infected.
His mother and father had long hospital stays and were eventually intubated. Though at one point he seemed to be getting better, Aguirre's father died September 11.
His mother still struggles with pulmonary issues from the disease.
"She's not 100%, she's about 60-65% better, but she's here," Aguirre said.
The family members were careful -- wearing masks and using hand sanitizer constantly -- and Aguirre says he has no idea how they contracted the virus.
With no way to make payments, the family's food truck was repossessed, and Aguirre lost the prep kitchen, too.
And with no health insurance, Aguirre's family faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills, showing CNN bills that neared $1 million.
Health insurance, Aguirre said, was just not affordable. "It's literally another house payment," he said.
Aguirre has applied for small business loans but was turned down because money for the program ran out.
Figuring out where to go from here isn't easy. Aguirre is weighing an offer to drive a truck, but that would mean leaving his pregnant wife and his sick mother.
And investing in getting the family business back up and running carries the risk of getting shut down again in the predicted surge of coronavirus infections over the fall and winter.
This 60-year-old short-order cook is facing eviction as the pandemic economy claims more victims
Next month, the Aguirre's are expecting their first daughter, and she will be named after her grandmother and grandfather: Guadalupe De Jesús.
"We were ready to have a new baby, because we felt that we were ready financially, and we were ready emotionally to take care of another human being," Aguirre said.
"Now, with this going on, I just ask God for strength to get me by another day. That's all I ask for."
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Jennifer C. Mancini
Organizador
New York, NY
Tamales y Tacos Puebla
Beneficiário