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Rudy Cavazos reaches inside his rolling ice cream cart for his business Rudy C’s Ice Cream.

Rudy C’s Ice Cream owner Rudy Cavazos poses with his rolling ice cream cart. The ice cream vendor will make his debut at St. Patrick’s Mexican Fiesta on Aug. 5.

Rudy Cavazos reaches inside his rolling ice cream cart for his business Rudy C’s Ice Cream.

Rudy C’s Ice Cream owner Rudy Cavazos poses with his rolling ice cream cart. The ice cream vendor will make his debut at St. Patrick’s Mexican Fiesta on Aug. 5.

A St. Joseph man wants to honor his Mexican roots in the sweetest way possible — with ice cream.

Starting with a rolling cart, Rudy Cavazos and his business Rudy C’s Ice Cream is following a Mexican tradition of one-man operations that sell ice cream in a small, manageable way.

“One of the ideas is just open up (peoples’) minds. Especially nowadays, everybody’s opening up taco trucks. Nothing bad against them, but, like, the authenticity and the culture it’s kind of went away,” he said.

The son of two Mexican parents, Cavazos wants to follow in the tradition of paleteros, people who usually sell a mixture of Mexican ice cream products and traditional fare via a pushcart. According to National Public Radio, the paleta, or Mexican ice cream, business began in the 1940s in Mexico. It quickly found its way to cities like Chicago.

“Growing up as a kid, you’d see the old man who could barely walk with a hat, barely making it by. I thought ‘That’s a goldmine business if you can work it,’” he said.

Differentiating his business from other ice cream vendors, Cavazos wants to focus on Mexican products that people might not try otherwise, like paletas and fruit ice bars with Tajin.

“It would work, but only if (you bring the product) to customers because people don’t know what this is. They don’t know it’s Mexican ice cream because it doesn’t say that anywhere,” he said.

The business will make its debut at the St. Patrick’s Mexican Fiesta on Friday, Aug. 5, at 1813 S. 12th St. Cavazos said he can’t think of a more fitting place to start.

“That’s what the fiesta does. They bring their culture to people and that’s why they hold the event, to highlight the food and the music. They don’t normally have ice cream, so this means a lot to me because that’s all me. That’s meant for me to be there,” he said.

Working several different jobs, including being a DJ, Cavazos said he would eventually like to expand the business and mix the two, where he can be at weddings, parties and gatherings selling ice cream and spinning tunes.

“I’m going to have a whole vibe for them so they book me as a DJ and an ice cream (vendor),” he said.

On top of that, Cavazos wants to be seen as a regular, approachable person who others can see as an inspiration for starting their own business.

“People can look up to me and believe that this is really attainable. You might get a lot of run-around, but this is really attainable,” he said.

More information about Rudy C’s Ice Cream can be found by calling 205-275-6487.

Andrew Gaug can be reached at andrew.gaug@newspressnow.com.

Follow him on Twitter: @NPNOWGaug

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