A north Dublin community has rallied around a Venezuelan family whose food truck was set on fire.
Papi’s Street Food, run by Ana and José, who preferred not to give their surnames, was set alight shortly after midnight on Monday, November 17th. The business served a mixture of Irish and Venezuelan flavours, with dishes including smash burgers and “loaded” chips, and was situated in Finglas.
Since the attack, Ana has received “so many messages of people trying to help and saying they miss us”, she said.
“So many people have been so good to us, we’re very grateful. The good outnumbers the bad.”
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The couple moved from Venezuela in 2018. It took them “three years of working and saving” to be able to afford to run the food truck. José ran the business and Ana would “help out” at times.
“People liked the flavours and trying new things,” she said. “It was very popular with really good reviews. We were very happy that people liked the food.”
In the early hours of Monday morning, her husband ran to the truck after receiving a call from the owner of the neighbouring Quarry House Pub, from whom they rent the land where the food truck sits, to say it had caught fire.
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Ana woke later, with her 11-month-old daughter, and found out what happened after checking her phone. “Everything is gone, nothing is left,” her husband told her.
The van had already been targeted a week earlier in an incident during which the tyres were damaged and an attempt was made to set it ablaze.
However, the couple “never believed [the attacker] would come back”.
When her husband arrived home, Ana hugged him. “In that moment you don’t need words, just a hug.”
“For him, it’s so frustrating. He keeps saying I just want to work. He didn’t do anything wrong, no one had a problem with him,” she explained.
“I don’t understand. How can someone do this to us?”
Ana recalled the “horrible smell of the fire” when the couple went to inspect the damage on Monday. “You could smell the fire before you could see the truck, it was shocking.”
Their five-year-old son keeps asking, “daddy, are you going to the food truck today?” and “when will the new food truck be set up?” she said.
They are unsure if the attack was racially motivated or random.
They want to bring back the business but feel “afraid”. “We need the money, we have kids and rent,” said Ana. “It’s a difficult time.”
The couple set up a GoFundMe page to help them “bring Papi’s back” after friends and customers told them to. It had raised almost €9,000 at time of publication.
Local councillors expressed support for the owners, with Fianna Fáil councillor Keith Connolly said the “whole community is disappointed”.
Mary Callaghan, Social Democrats councillor, said it was a “very well-frequented food stand” and described it as a “huge disappointment for the owners and the community.”
Gardaí said investigations into an incident of criminal damage are ongoing and they are appealing to anyone who may have information on this incident to come forward.
