After coronavirus closures cut her hours, this Coyo Taco cook worries about survival
The doors are shut at Coyo Taco, one of Miami’s most famous food spots.
On the door is a sign that warns patrons food is only available via delivery or pickup, thanks to the coronavirus. A cramped line of people who either don’t know or care about social distancing forms in front of a side window, where a staffer is busy trading tacos for credit cards.
Inside, Ledys Cuevas is whirling from the grill to the prep station, slinging order tickets down the metal wire along the counter. Like tens of thousands of Floridians, she’s worried about what the spread of COVID-19 means for her job, for her family and for her future.
Coyo, like every other restaurant in Miami-Dade County, is feeling the strain as county orders force them to switch to take out and delivery only. To avoid becoming joining the ranks of the thousands of newly unemployed restaurant workers, Cuevas and her coworkers all agreed to collectively work fewer hours so that no single one of them lost their chance at a paycheck.
And while she thinks that show of unity was the right call, Cuevas said that the reduced hours are still painful.
“With one day a week, it’s almost impossible to survive,” she said. “I’m afraid to work with this coronavirus, but I think I need to work. If I don’t work, what am I going to do? I need to work to be able to pay my bills.”
Emily Barstow, marketing director for Coyo Taco, said the company is trying to stay open as many hours as they can to ensure staff gets as big a paycheck as possible. They’re also working on getting vendors to donate food they can pass on to staff who need to feed their families.
“We’re trying to do the best we can to serve our staff, our customers, our community. And right now that’s doing takeout and delivery as long as possible,” she said. “It’s a day-by-day decision.”
Cuevas said she’d like to stay home with her 5-year-old son Danny until this all blows over, but that’s out of the question for her financially. Now that school is canceled, babysitting is just another bill added to the stack.
She also worries about how coronavirus could impact her immigration status. Ever since she crossed the border, fleeing from violence in Honduras, the court has been considering her asylum claim. This could slow it down even further, or complicate matters the next time she renews her work permit.
“I’m also worried about submitting my application, how long it’s going to take, if it’s going to be approved, if something else is going to happen,” she said. “It’s unpredictable, one could never say.”
As she watched Danny splash around in a plastic pool in their front yard, she wondered aloud how his life could change if the coronavirus crisis worsens.
“It’s very hard because one starts thinking: ‘What am I going to give my son? What am I going to do if I lose my job and there’s no jobs? What are we going to do?” she said. “I need to wait and see what happens.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2020 at 2:53 PM.
