OCEANSIDE — The MainStreet Oceanside events director was suspended without pay and resigned as board president of the Friends of Oceanside Dia de los Muertos after a viral TikTok video depicting her attempts to remove an unauthorized street vendor at last Sunday’s Dia de los Muertos event fueled public backlash.
The viral video shows Cathy Nykiel, a longtime volunteer of the Oceanside Dia de los Muertos festival, attempting to remove a street vendor and his cart from the Oct. 22 event while arguing with several other individuals near the Artist Alley entryway off of Pier View Way.
“This is public property, but I paid for this event—I did, me,” Nykiel said in the video.
The circumstances leading up to the altercation started when Nykiel reportedly asked a man operating a food cart without an official event vendor permit to leave the area.
Isela Villegas (formerly Talamantes), vice president of the Oceanside Dia de los Muertos board, defended Nykiel’s attempts to remove the street vendor on Facebook.
“He was told to leave nicely several times and refused,” Villegas wrote.
In the video, a man accuses Nykiel of almost hitting his young daughter, who is seen crying as the staff member pushed the vendor’s cart to exit the festival.
Many community members took to social media with complaints about Nykiel’s behavior, leaving comments on Facebook posts about the event by MainStreet Oceanside and Oceanside Dia de los Muertos.
“Disgraceful. I can’t believe you have people in your organization who traumatized a young girl and her father,” wrote Ramon Rendon.
Nykiel is a staff member of MainStreet Oceanside, serving as both the events director and manager of Sunset Market. She was also president of the Friends of Oceanside Dia de los Muertos board. However, her name had been removed from the nonprofit’s website on Monday, the day before she resigned.
MainStreet Oceanside announced Nykiel’s suspension without pay pending an investigation into the incident on Oct. 25. She has also been removed from all MainStreet Oceanside events, including the Sunset and Farmers Markets.
“While the event was not organized by MainStreet Oceanside, our employee Cathy Nykiel engaged in inexcusable behavior,” states Chief Operating Officer Gumaro Escarcega in the announcement.
Some online accused Nykiel and the MainStreet Oceanside board of racism, calling for her termination from the nonprofit organization.
MainStreet Oceanside denied that any other staff, board and committee members, vendors and downtown businesses were involved in the incident.
“We hope that the community will respect our process,” Escarcega states. “As always, we will strive to learn from this incident and continue to support our community and the well-being of our businesses.”
Nykiel apologized on the Friends of Dia de los Muertos’ website on Monday.
“I take full responsibility for my actions at the festival yesterday and am extremely remorseful and embarrassed,” Nykiel said. “I am very sorry for how this affected the little girl and the festival guests.”
Nykiel also apologized to those involved in making the event happen.
“I hope my actions do not affect the image of the City of Oceanside, Friends of Oceanside Dia de los Muertos, MainStreet Oceanside, Por Siempre Car Club and all of the community sponsors, partners and so many volunteers that have been there for the festival each and every year.”
Nykiel said she is “very passionate” about the city and the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) event, a two-day holiday celebrating the reunification of the living and dead. Although the holiday is typically observed on Nov. 1 and 2, several regional events, like the one in Oceanside, are held a little earlier in October.
In 2006, Nykiel began volunteering for the Oceanside event, sticking with the festival when it moved from downtown to Mission San Luis Rey. When the mission was unable to continue running the event, Nykiel gathered other community members to help keep the festival running at the mission until 2018, when the Friends of Oceanside Dia de los Muertos nonprofit was founded.
The festival moved back to downtown in 2021.
“I am passionate about keeping the Oceanside Dia de los Muertos Festival alive,” Nykiel continued in her apology statement. “I feel that the festival is a heartful moment to keep in Oceanside and am extremely grateful for those organizations, community groups, volunteers and especially the Friends of Oceanside Dia de los Muertos all-volunteer board who have worked so hard to make it what it is now.”
Advocacy for street vendors has been a significant movement in the Latino community for nearly a century. Over the years, street vendors have been targeted by local laws, harassment and discrimination.
The Friends of Oceanside Dia de los Muertos board also issued a statement on Oct. 24 apologizing for how the incident was handled.
“We would like to extend our sincerest apologies for the situation concerning the removal of an unlicensed and unpermited ice cream vendor at our event,” the statement reads. “We fully acknowledge that this matter should have been handled better, and we deeply regret any distress or inconvenience caused to both the vendor and our valued attendees.”
Moving forward, the non-profit plans to review its vendor management protocols, improve communication with partners and tighten its enforcement of licensing and permitting regulations.
“In the spirit of transparency and accountability, we will also be conducting an internal review of our processes and policies to ensure that we uphold the highest standards in event management and execution,” the statement reads.
