How To Help San Diego Street Vendor Harassed By 4 Women, Calling Vendors ‘Illegals’

Street vendor harassment continues to rise, and one man in San Diego sadly just became another victim.

Andres Arguelles Alvarez was just minding his business one night, working at his hot dog stand near San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena. However, four college students decided to harass him, touch his food without consent, argue about his pricing, and even call all vendors “illegals.”

mitú spoke to Arguelles Alvarez about the incident, and how luckily, our amazing community is coming together to help him.

After watching the video, members of our community are taking action

The video of the disturbing interaction seems to have been originally posted on TikTok by @rileykaufman9. However, it has since gone viral, propelled by our community demanding action — and accountability. At least one of the students reportedly attends Cal State San Marcos, while another is a former student there.

As the video shows, the four women endlessly harass Arguelles Alvarez, arguing about how his hot dogs are $7. One woman says, “I’m gonna f**k you over, now you understand?” and throws a piece of her food into the stand. Another says, “She’s not doing anything to be honest,” while they continue to touch all the vendor’s unpurchased food.

While the vendor politely asks them to move, they scream “No sir” in his face. The women continue to touch all his food, grabbing and eating his products without consent. They laugh, even when a noticeably distraught Arguelles Alvarez yells, “Hey! Stop!”

The four women spewed racist insults and continued to harass him

While we thought the harassment couldn’t get any worse, we were wrong. Another video posted by @enamoradoalex_ shows the women complaining about the $7 price for the hot dogs, saying it should be $5 instead. In the background, one of the women says, “You know what they are? Illegals,” and laughs.

They continue to debate the $7 price, and eventually leave after the vendor begs them to. The exchange is absolutely disgusting, and many are calling on the women’s college institutions and places of work to take action.

While many social media users pinpointed the women as San Diego State University students, specifically Delta Gamma sorority members there, that has since been disproved. For one, The Daily Aztec reported that the sorority recently explained they have no affiliation with them.

Meanwhile, SDSU has since released a statement reading: “None of the individuals in the video are confirmed to be SDSU students.” They said that at least one of the students “reported being misidentified” in the video and was actually not present, and “none of the remaining names shared are SDSU students.”

The university said they have “confirmed with university officials that three individuals connected to the video are currently or have been students elsewhere, not at SDSU.”

That being said, Margaret Chantung, chief spokesperson for Cal State San Marcos said “The actions in this video are extremely disrespectful to the vendor and go against the university’s values,” so the dean of students is currently “looking into the matter.”

This is what the vendor told mitú about the disturbing moment

Meanwhile, mitú interviewed Arguelles Alvarez about the incident, who said the women “offended him, discriminated against him, and disrespect him and his business.”

The vendor explains that they didn’t want to pay for the hot dogs, and wanted him to give them the food for free. Calling them clearly “privileged,” they began vandalizing his stand, “grabbing the food with their hands” and “stealing.”

Arguelles Alvarez also told @enamoradoalex_ that the women went on like this for over 40 minutes. He described how they just wanted “to pick on him,” and explained that they would have harassed him even if he gave the hot dogs out for free.

Meanwhile, the vendor told mitú he felt “sad and humiliated” by the incident. The vendor is noticeably still distressed, and undoubtedly lost much of his products after the girls touched much of it.

How to help the vendor get back on his feet

The vendor shared his Venmo account @icecream22 under his name Andres Arguelles Alvarez, where people can donate to him. This will no doubt help him recover lost product supply and get him on his feet again.

Harassment of this nature can be traumatizing in more ways than one, so donations will surely help him immensely.