Lifestyle
A Family in Bloom
Whether you buy a bunch of tulips to celebrate spring or a box of roses this Mother's Day, it all starts in a flower market - where the Sanchez family works in L.A.
It's that time of year again. Poppies are popping up through the soil. Daffodils are dancing in the wind. And tiny bursts of color catch your eye - telling you that, yes, spring has finally sprung again, and all of its natural beauty is here.
Willie Sanchez
But how does that beauty go from the tip of a tree blossom to the beautiful bouquet in your arms? Through the hard work of people such as Willie Sanchez, 55, a Mexican immigrant who came to America in 1966 after a stranger visited his town of Tepalcatepec and urged him to move to the U.S. to sell flowers. "He said, 'Someday, you can come to the U.S., and I'll teach you to work with them,' " Sanchez remembers. "That gave me the idea."
Two years later, at just 16 years old, Sanchez made the trip to America. And three weeks after that, the young Sanchez walked into the Los Angeles Flower Mart and, bouncing from vendor to vendor, landed a job. He never saw or spoke to that stranger again. But that stranger's words not only gave him a great idea, they gave him a great life.
That life began when Eddie Edmonds, owner of Edmonds Wholesale, saw something in Sanchez' eyes that made him believe that he might be good for his business. And 12 years after that, when Edmonds told Sanchez he was about to retire and urged him to open his own business, there's no doubt that that look was still there.
Only 28 years old at the time, Sanchez had achieved the American dream. As he hung his Willie Sanchez Wholesale sign where the Edmonds Wholesale sign once hung, he didn't know it, but, eventually, he'd see the look he once had in the eyes of his son.
William Sanchez
"When my dad started, I was about 5 or 6 years old," says Sanchez' son, William, 29, a partner in the business. "I would go in and pretend to work, but I would just run around." Thirteen years later, however, that time "running around" lured the honors student away from a plan to study architecture to a career revolving around family and home. "Everybody saw me grow up there," William says. "So it was like a second home." Besides, he adds, his father's offer to start his own business in a second location across the street was an opportunity he couldn't refuse. "I don't think people are as free as I am, working around flowers all the time," William says. "I'm just happy."
L.A. Flower Mart
That happiness comes from selling flowers at the Los Angeles Flower Mart to Southern California florists grown on between 30 to 40 California flower farms in cities such as Oxnard, Carpinteria and San Diego. Every day, between 11 p.m. and noon the next day, William and his father process and sell between 40 to 50 boxes of flowers, including tropicals, which are imported from Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica and make William feel as if he's traveled to exotic places without ever leaving home. "They make me think of the rainforest," William says. "I've always wanted to go. So when I put them in my house, I feel like I'm there."
Sunflowers, Read More
The elder Sanchez looks to sunflowers, tuberoses and calla lilies to take him back to his favorite place: Mexico. When he watched them grow in his yard as a child, he hoped to one day work with flowers. But he had no idea that his business would become a real family affair, employing his brothers, Epamuceno, 46, and Auden, 43, his daughter, Yvette, 33, and her husband, Fernando, 30, and William's wife, Yadira, 20.
When Sanchez considers how his life has evolved since he first heard that stranger's words, a smile spreads across his face. "Every day I walk in, I see my name," he says, looking at the sign. "I always thought, If I work hard, America is going to be good to me. And it has. It gave my family a life."
