Protests are cropping up across the country opposing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and military presence in California. Meanwhile, some Los Angeles business owners are finding their own way to support immigrant, Latino and Hispanic communities targeted by recent federal immigration enforcement raids.
SueEllen Mancini, 34, is the owner of Sad Girl Creamery, an LA-based ice cream business that offers Latin-inspired flavors like chocoflan and guava jam cheesecake. She tells CNBC Make It she’s unable to protest because she is her mother’s primary caretaker.
“But I figured, ‘OK, we can put our heads together and be able to give back, even if it’s just a little bit,'” Mancini say. “And I think the biggest way I could personally give back is monetarily.”
On Sunday, Mancini says she will donate 20% of sales from her pop-up at downtown LA’s Smorgasburg event, including all tips, to The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, an LA County-based immigrant rights group.
Mancini launched Sad Girl Creamery from her home in 2021 after buying a $300 Whynter ice cream maker. She considers her venture a “microbusiness.” Even so, “I think it’s important to put your money where your mouth is and really give back to the people who are on the ground trying to make a difference, even if you can’t personally be there,” Mancini says.
“It means a lot to be able to give back to the people who are going through the same situations we’ve gone through in the past,” she says.
The latest news of immigration enforcement raids is personal. When Mancini was a teenager, she says her older brother, then 18 years old, was deported. He had been born outside of the country, came to the U.S. as an infant and was unaware of his immigration status, Mancini says.
“My brother was only a 1-year old [when he arrived in the U.S.], so America was literally all he knew up until his deportation,” Mancini says. “This was before [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals]. My mother later had me here in the U.S., making me the only citizen [and] documented in the family for 25 years.”
Mancini says she and her family, including her mom and an older sister, are still paying immigration lawyer fees for her brother’s return to the U.S., “and it is a painfully long process and really expensive.”
Mancini works alongside her mom, Maria Lupes, to run Sad Girl Creamery, which operates out of a commercial kitchen in Culver City and sells pints in stores around the metro area.
“[My mom has] always been really hard-working and very independent [and] a super quick thinker,” Mancini says about working with her mom. “I get everything from her, so her great working aspects and creativity definitely rubs off on me.”
Mancini, who grew up in Houston, says moving to LA in 2018 helped her embrace her family’s roots in Uruguay and Chile.
“When I visited the first time I immediately saw how Latino-focused it is, the whole community, and that made me feel close to my own culture,” she told the LA Times in 2023. “That made me want to be closer to that side of myself that I had never paid attention to. … I come from an immigrant family, I grew up that way. I share all those experiences, but I had never expressed it.”
Roughly 10 million people call LA County home, and some 49% identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census data.
Mancini uses her platform around Sad Girl Creamery to raise awareness for mental health issues, too, which she says are still stigmatized in many areas of U.S. Latino culture. Many Latinos face barriers to care.
As for her upcoming efforts to raise money for local immigrant groups, “I really hope that we get a lot of people to show up [and] help put more more money towards helping these people,” Mancini says. “Come and enjoy ice cream that’s literally inspired by these cultures.”
“Maybe the ice cream might make you feel a little better,” Mancini adds. “Things are really scary out there, but as long as we support one another, we can get through this. We’re a strong community.”
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