Hundreds of people wandered through rows of sparkling gems at Tucson’s 22nd Street Gem Show Friday but lighter crowds and staffing shortages pointed to a quieter start to this year’s season. Vendors say winter storms, immigration fears and rising tariffs are affecting one of the city’s biggest annual events.
The city is hosting 56 gem shows as part of the season this year, with the 22nd Street show among the most heavily attended.
Even so, clusters of booths sat empty throughout the venue. Winter storms disrupted travel, leaving some vendors and attendees unable to fly into Tucson ahead of the show’s opening.
The second day of the show also coincided with large anti–ICE demonstrations in Tucson that temporarily shut down dozens of local businesses.
Cesar Martinez, who has attended the gem show as both a vendor and buyer for 19 years, said staffing shortages have been a challenge this year.
“This year there have been a series of problems because we’ve been short on staff. Last year there were a lot of Latino workers, and this year there’s no one — I mean, no one,” he said in Spanish. So none of the people who worked last year came back. I imagine it’s because of the [immigration] situation.”
While Martinez said he wasn’t aware of the local protests, he has noticed broader impacts tied to the current political climate, including higher prices and lower attendance.
“The global instability — because what’s happening in this country isn’t only affecting people with immigration issues or anything like that, but in general the world is scared,” he said.
Based in the United States and Colombia, Martinez sells emeralds and said record prices for precious metals like gold and silver, as well as tariffs, have affected vendors across the show.
“A lot of Europeans have stopped coming because they don’t want to risk having problems with visas and things like that, so they’ve stopped traveling in general,” he said. “What has affected things a lot are the tariffs — for instance, India’s are 50%.”
Arizona Luminaria spoke with two vendors at two gem shows who reported fewer vendors and lighter foot traffic this year, though many noted it was still too early to predict final attendance numbers. Several vendors also said they struggled to find workers to help set up booths, attributing the shortage to Latino workers without citizenship being more cautious about appearing in public spaces.
Alfredo, an obsidian vendor from Mexico attending the show for the 10th year, said he has noticed fewer customers and higher prices but no major disruptions. He asked that his last name not be used for fear of repercussions.
“There are a few fewer people, that’s true,” Alfredo said in Spanish. “The same number of customers haven’t come.”
Overall, he said, he does not feel fearful and hasn’t seen significant differences compared with past years.
For the sixth year, Su-Ata has operated a booth at the 22nd Street Gem Show featuring jewelry, art and traditional medicine from Indigenous communities across Central and South America.
“This is the second day of the show that the exhibition has started so the crowd is not as big as it used to be, I’m noticing that,” Su-Ata said.
A California resident, Su-Ata said he was unaware of the ICE protests in Tucson but had difficulty finding workers to help set up his booth.
“Every show I go to I hire local people, but this year it was a little harder for me to find people that could help us,” he said. “There’s a lot less people, especially Hispanic people here and it was harder for us to find helpers.”
While he doesn’t live in Tucson, he isn’t closed off to the realities of the current political climate.
“When I see the border patrol, that’s like what I’m seeing in Tucson often. I’m like, “Oh, I wonder what’s going on. Oh, you know, I wonder if they are going to harass someone,” he said.
As an immigrant with ties to Latin America, Su-Ata said he feels the fear and stigmatization in his community back home in California. He also feels anxiety around being distrustful of law enforcement.
“They’re there to normally impose peace. But when they become a threat to our peace —our inner peace to begin with —then definitely that affects us in our nervous system, in our behaviors,” he said.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print.
