Santa Clara County Local News

Paleta Planeta would not exist without the parents of Mauricio, Luis and Gabriel Salazar, who allowed their three sons to turn the family's San Jose home into their first Mexican popsicle factory.
"It is very Silicon Valley to start a company out of a garage," Luis told San José Spotlight. "We just constantly made batches until we had four 12-cubic-foot freezers in their living room. That’s about when our mom said, ‘What’s going on here?'"
Now celebrating its fourth year and the opening of a downtown storefront adjacent to San Jose City Hall, Paleta Planeta, like many home businesses, was born out of necessity during the early stages of the pandemic when Mauricio’s work at the airport tapered down.
"Ideas started popping into my head," Mauricio said. "I thought, ‘If you’re going to lose it all, you might as well bet on yourself."'
He shared some of his ideas with his cousin, Alejandro Guerrero, who had come to America with help from the Salazar family. He was a third-generation ice cream maker from Tocumbo Michoacán, the Mecca of paletas, and invited Luis to Texas to learn the trade.
There are about 25 flavors of paletas — the Mexican version of a popsicle — at Paleta Planeta, all made with fresh fruit and juices. Photo by Robert Eliason.
"They opened the doors to me," Luis said. "They told me, ‘This is how you make everything. These are the distributors you need.' When I got home, I told Mauricio, ‘This makes sense, let’s do it.'"
According to Luis, the secret to Mexican ice cream and paletas is the freshness and quality of the ingredients, as opposed to more commercial products.
"Other places skip steps and use concentrates," he said. "But ours are made with all-natural fruits and fresh ingredients, and you can taste them. In a mango paleta, for example, you can feel the texture of the actual mango, and that makes all the difference."

Santa Clara County and its cities will have a new revenue stream next month to help people at risk of becoming homeless.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in September launched Project Homekey+, which sets aside $2.2 billion to house homeless veterans and people with behavioral health or substance use issues. The money comes from Proposition 1, passed by voters in March. This initiative builds upon the state’s Homekey program launched at the beginning of the pandemic, which gives localities money to build or convert commercial properties, hotels, adult residential facilities and more into permanent or temporary housing for those experiencing homelessness.
“Project Homekey has helped San Jose give hundreds of homeless residents safe, dignified places to live by converting existing motels into transitional housing with services for our most vulnerable,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan told San José Spotlight. “These grants played a critical role in helping San Jose reduce unsheltered homelessness by more than 10% year-over-year, and we’re eager to continue working to leverage Homekey+ funds to build on this momentum.”
There are some distinct differences with Project Homekey+ compared with the previous iteration: half of the permanent supportive housing built will be reserved for veterans. The new program will not fund emergency interim housing — and projects that have already received Homekey funding aren't eligible. Supportive services such as crisis counseling, medication management, life skills training and case management will be required. Applications for funding will be available next month, with the first tranche coming in May until the money is exhausted. All construction must be completed within a year of receiving funds.

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