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Belinda Vaca knew how careful her son was about his peanut allergy, so she never worried about him having a fatal reaction. Now she's fighting to make sure that no one else loses a loved one because of a restaurant's mistake — as she did nine years ago.
Sergio Lopez was 3 years old when Vaca first realized her son was allergic to peanuts. She was baking cookies while Sergio was watching cartoons in the living room and she noticed that his eye and his lip began to swell. My first reaction was, "he got bit by a spider," Vaca says. She took him to the ER and they told her it was a food allergy. "He hadn't even eaten a cookie," Vaca says. "It was just the smell."
Even as a child, Sergio took his allergy seriously. In school, where he was known as “the peanut boy,” he’d remind his classmates and teachers to keep nuts out of the classroom. He carried hand wipes everywhere and avoided public toilets for fear of contamination.
Courtesy Belinda Vaca
So in June of 2014, when the 24-year-old ordered a vegetarian taco for lunch at a restaurant in McAllen, Texas, he was typically cautious, asking three times whether the dish contained peanuts. No, he was told, only spices. But less than 12 hours later, Lopez was dead of anaphylaxis: The taco had been made with a sauce containing peanut butter.
Afterward, the restaurant owner said Lopez asked about peanuts — but not peanut butter. “This shouldn’t happen,” Vaca thought. “There should be a law.”
Vaca, 64, a retired IT specialist, spent the next nine years lobbying for that. In May, the Texas state legislature passed the Sergio Lopez Food Allergy Awareness Act. “Belinda showed up to the Capitol every legislative session to fight for this,” says state Rep. Philip Cortez, who authored the bill. “Sergio’s death could have been prevented. Because of Belinda, other mothers and fathers may not lose their child.”
The law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, 2023, requires Texas restaurants to post food-allergy awareness signs in employee areas by September 2024. Those signs must include: a list of the major food allergens as determined by the FDA; the risks of an allergic reaction; the symptoms of a reaction, which can include facial swelling and itchy skin; how to prevent an allergic reaction; and, how to help someone having a reaction. The law also mandates that allergy awareness be part of food handler certification.
Courtesy Belinda Vaca
“It was ignorance,” Vaca says of how the restaurant treated the concerns of her son, a musician (he played guitar, cello and bagpipes) who taught music and studied engineering at the University of Texas at Brownsville. “Making people aware is my way of dealing with grief,” says Vaca, who decided against suing the restaurant but is pushing for similar laws in other states. “And it’s a way to give love to my son.”
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