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Glenda Valenzuela plopped some canned beans into a pan of sizzling onions — breakfast for her husband and three young boys.
She grabbed a bag of white beans to wash and dump into a slow cooker.
That batch would be for lunch. More beans were on the menu for dinner. And for breakfast the next morning.
Once, Valenzuela and her husband, Mario Alarcon, worked full time cleaning offices, schools and other buildings. With money from side gigs, they could take their children to a buffet or a movie night including popcorn and drinks.
They dreamed of more: a bigger home in a neighborhood where their autistic eldest son could have better services and where Alarcon could expand his entrepreneurial spirit.
It all seemed within reach for two immigrants without legal status — until the COVID-19 pandemic descended.
Now, a $10 bill hidden at the bottom of Valenzuela’s purse can feel like a godsend.
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Alarcon and Valenzuela met on a camping trip at the Kern River in 2010.
He was from Veracruz, Mexico. She was from Guatemala City.
Alarcon had come to Los Angeles at 17, hoping to save the money he earned at restaurant and janitorial gigs for a computer engineering degree back home. She was fleeing an abusive relationship.
They made a life in L.A. together. Their first son, Angel, was born in 2012. Daniel came two years later.
Glenda Valenzuela washes an apple for her son Angel, 9. When the pandemic began, Valenzuela was laid off from her job as an office cleaner.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Mario Alarcon earns money from an assortment of side jobs, including furniture repair, to support his wife and three sons.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
They both had cleaning experience, so they started working for a company that contracts with office buildings.
As a second job, Alarcon repaired furniture for an antique store in San Marino. He had learned the craft by watching his father in Mexico. The pay was $22 an hour, versus the $13 an hour he earned cleaning.
Six days a week, Alarcon worked an 8:30-a.m.-to-5:30-p.m. shift at the furniture store, then headed to the Department of Motor Vehicles in El Monte or an architect’s office in Burbank, where he cleaned until midnight.
On weekends, he repaired tables, chairs and dressers for clients he had met through the furniture store. That didn’t leave much time with his family. But he beamed when he realized how much he and …….