It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report, explore, from WBEZ.

It's that season when ice cream cart bells ring across Chicago sidewalks, parks, and beaches.

It's also the season for us to get asked about Mexican popsicles or paletas and the palateros that sell them.

So we were delighted to take on this question from Samuel Osorio.

How do you get a job selling ice cream from a rolling cart?

And where do you have to go?

Maybe Samuel was just curious, or maybe he wants to work as a palatero.

We couldn't reach him to find out.

I'm Catalina Maria Johnson, and I'm going to lay out what you need to know if you're going to be a palatero.

This is so-called less skilled work, but doing it well takes lots of strategy and savvy.

Let's start at a small ice cream shop on Clark Street in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

It's called La Polar, and it's a good place to learn lesson one, the business relationship.

It's early on a Saturday morning, and the palateros are here, loading both push carts and bike carts.

The carts can weigh over 200 pounds once they're full of palettes,

ice cream bars, and other frozen treats.

Paola Garcia is the daughter of the store owners. She says La Polar loans both the carts

and the treats. There's no hourly wage. Both the store and the palateros keep a cut of paleta sales.

Do they have a choice or do you usually count on a certain number coming every day?

Oh, no.

They get to work whatever days they want to work,

and from whatever time to whatever time they want to work.

Basically, they're their own bosses.

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