Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Latinx with Plants

Transcript

Latinx with Plants · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

0:02
Speaker 1: Radio radio radio. He's a myth and bullshit. A radio
0:16
Speaker 1: phonic novella Local Radio hosted by Malamo La La Locomotives.
0:24
Speaker 1: Welcome to season six of Local Radios next Door. Look
0:29
Speaker 1: At Radio is a radio phonic novella, which is just
0:33
Speaker 1: a very extra way of saying a podcast, a podcast.
0:38
Speaker 1: I'm viosa and I'm mala. Thanks for tuning in on
0:45
Speaker 1: one last time on look at Our Radio. We just
0:49
Speaker 1: had a quick check in life update, a little pop
0:53
Speaker 1: culture review. Today we are talking about the relationship between
0:59
Speaker 1: latinos and plants, and we have a very uh plant
1:03
Speaker 1: famous guest actually on the show, so make sure you
1:06
Speaker 1: tune in for the second half. Yeah, but just to
1:09
Speaker 1: get started, you know, we wanted to examine the very
1:13
Speaker 1: interesting relationship that latinos and latin x books specifically have
1:19
Speaker 1: with plants. But also like the links some people go
1:22
Speaker 1: to two continue there's like hobby of plant parenthood because
1:29
Speaker 1: it's very serious on the on the social media landscape. Um,
1:34
Speaker 1: it's its own business. Um either you own your own
1:37
Speaker 1: plant store or you have like an Instagram account where
1:42
Speaker 1: you do brand partnerships. So it's definitely morphed into something
1:47
Speaker 1: very big and very different. Um, but for some of us,
1:49
Speaker 1: it's like we've grown up with plants. We've grown up
1:51
Speaker 1: with our parents caring for them, our grandmother's gardening, our
1:56
Speaker 1: grandparents garden gardening. So we wanted to talk about all
1:59
Speaker 1: of that day and then also invite our wonderful guests,
2:03
Speaker 1: Andy Sotch to talk about her business Latin X with Plants. Absolutely,
2:08
Speaker 1: we did notice in the pandemic that at least on
2:11
Speaker 1: our Instagram feeds and what we saw there seemed to
2:14
Speaker 1: be this huge boom in plant parenthood. Um. And they're
2:18
Speaker 1: even like as an l A Times vertical now about
2:22
Speaker 1: plant parents. Right. But we do have some housekeeping and
2:26
Speaker 1: some announcements. Uh internally, you know, we like to remind
2:29
Speaker 1: you guys to follow us across social media where everywhere Instagram, Twitter,
2:33
Speaker 1: TikTok and um. If you are looking for a findom drain,
2:37
Speaker 1: you can always hit our venmo at local dash radio.
2:41
Speaker 1: Gas prices are up and uh, you know we're gigging,
2:44
Speaker 1: we're in l A, we're commuting. Contribute to the project.
2:51
Speaker 1: Another way to support us is by using our affiliate
2:54
Speaker 1: code look Radio fifteen on Viva Cosmetics dot com. You
2:59
Speaker 1: can just your favorite lippy highlighter makeup Biden from Latina
3:05
Speaker 1: own makeup brand, Viva Cosmetics, and make sure you head
3:08
Speaker 1: to our website look at our Radio dot com and
3:11
Speaker 1: subscribe to our newsletter Bestitos. Our newsletter subscribers get all
3:17
Speaker 1: of the most direct, up to date information about our
3:20
Speaker 1: events are parties, the things that we have going on
3:24
Speaker 1: outside of the podcast. You know, we have quite the
3:26
Speaker 1: little podcast community that we've been building over the past
3:29
Speaker 1: six years, and our listeners like to come out in
3:32
Speaker 1: person and dance and party and laugh and enjoy live
3:36
Speaker 1: music and have a good time. So we're curating all
3:39
Speaker 1: kinds of events um for our listener community all summer.
3:43
Speaker 1: We just had a party called bibis Alta at Resident.
3:46
Speaker 1: It was wild. It was so fun. We sold three
3:50
Speaker 1: and eight tickets, but there was like definitely more than
3:53
Speaker 1: four hundred people there um with guest list and everything else.
3:56
Speaker 1: So we're doing it again next month. It's going to
3:59
Speaker 1: be a Guess thirteen. It's a Saturday at Resident. We're
4:03
Speaker 1: gonna put out a flyer and the event bright and
4:05
Speaker 1: announce the DJ lineup. It's going to be lots of fun,
4:08
Speaker 1: and then we're also going to have another Muddy one
4:10
Speaker 1: at at Jokes and tokes Um this month. Actually in July,
4:14
Speaker 1: it's going to be on which is a Sunday at
4:19
Speaker 1: the Artist Try Studio Lounge in Wi Hoo. So once again,
4:23
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe at Look at the Radio dot
4:25
Speaker 1: com that you get all ticketing information for all of
4:28
Speaker 1: our events. Also, not to be dramatic, but I will
4:32
Speaker 1: be debuting a new look at the next ebisot that
4:35
Speaker 1: party because I was not able to attend the last one,
4:38
Speaker 1: so I have to show out and show up really hard.
4:41
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah literally, Um yosa, did you have
4:45
Speaker 1: a hair appointment the day before? Right? Like yeah, And
4:48
Speaker 1: I'm doing a brand new look, something I have never done.
4:52
Speaker 1: So I'm like really excited. So come to bbisot that
4:57
Speaker 1: to see my look and also to dance with us.
5:00
Speaker 1: Yes literally for all of the above reasons. It's going
5:02
Speaker 1: to be so fun. And you can also get a
5:05
Speaker 1: discount on your next purchase at dash glass dot com
5:09
Speaker 1: using our affiliate code mighty one a P four p
5:13
Speaker 1: um and make sure you subscribe and become a member
5:17
Speaker 1: on our Patreon. Alright, so let's get into it. The garden,
5:22
Speaker 1: It the main dish, as you say, mala. So we're
5:26
Speaker 1: talking about plants. We're talking about the plant boom um
5:32
Speaker 1: for over the last few years, but I think especially
5:35
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. Did you buy any plants during the pandemic.
5:39
Speaker 1: Were you one of those people, because I definitely was.
5:43
Speaker 1: I did buy a couple of plants, and then, uh,
5:46
Speaker 1: you know what happens is like my grandma has this
5:50
Speaker 1: pothos that she has been growing for years and years
5:53
Speaker 1: and years and years and years, and she is constantly
5:56
Speaker 1: taking clippings of it and starting new plants and then
5:59
Speaker 1: giving them way. So you know, she does that from
6:02
Speaker 1: time to time with succulents. She likes to take clippings
6:08
Speaker 1: and then what's it called um when you propagate them
6:14
Speaker 1: so that they and then and then she plants them
6:16
Speaker 1: and then she gives them always gifts. So I accumulated plants,
6:19
Speaker 1: but it was a lot of just we're here at
6:21
Speaker 1: home and we're tending to the house and the garden,
6:26
Speaker 1: and so she was giving away lots of clippings and
6:28
Speaker 1: so I got some. I love that. I went to
6:33
Speaker 1: a nursery. I went to multiple nurseries over the course
6:36
Speaker 1: of the pandemic. Shoutout GT Nursery and bell flower um.
6:40
Speaker 1: I definitely bought lots of plants. I would say most
6:45
Speaker 1: of them survived. There were there was a period where
6:47
Speaker 1: I got like really ambitious and I was buying like
6:50
Speaker 1: really hard to care for plants like the notoriously die
6:54
Speaker 1: like the calithias I think they're called. And I bought
6:57
Speaker 1: a couple and it did not matter it I was.
7:00
Speaker 1: I tried so many things, and so now you know,
7:05
Speaker 1: season three, year three of the pandemic, I have learned,
7:08
Speaker 1: Like the plants for me, which are the monstera and
7:11
Speaker 1: the pothos, those are like I can keep those alive.
7:14
Speaker 1: They're so intuitive. I feel like they let you know
7:16
Speaker 1: what they need. And that's the kind of plant that
7:18
Speaker 1: I need, Like I need you to tell me I'm thirsty, bitch,
7:22
Speaker 1: like look at me, you know, or like, oh no,
7:25
Speaker 1: you're giving me too much water, like you know, let
7:28
Speaker 1: me dry out for a little bit. A plant with
7:30
Speaker 1: good communication skills, a communicative plant, yes, yes. And I
7:35
Speaker 1: used to be the kind of plant parenthood that like
7:37
Speaker 1: showed too much love, and that was like I think
7:40
Speaker 1: also like what I was doing in all my relationships,
7:42
Speaker 1: I was loving too hard. So you got you got
7:45
Speaker 1: to learn a step back right that suffocating love. You
7:48
Speaker 1: were drowning them. I was drowning my plants, Yes I was.
7:53
Speaker 1: I could not. I still haven't even tried succulents, like
7:55
Speaker 1: I've given up on owning succulents. I hate that people
7:58
Speaker 1: say they're easy to take care of. Their not not
8:02
Speaker 1: they're they are, They're delicate. And I love that you're
8:05
Speaker 1: You landed on the pothos and the monstera because I
8:08
Speaker 1: feel like those are also very classic, like Senora plants,
8:11
Speaker 1: like Senora's love a long, viney, sprawling pothos inside the house,
8:17
Speaker 1: outside the house, hanging on a table, on a counter,
8:24
Speaker 1: attached to a wall, like everywhere everywhere, um. And it's
8:31
Speaker 1: because they, yeah, they're so sturdy and you can basically
8:35
Speaker 1: push them to the brink of death, and if you
8:37
Speaker 1: start watering them again, they will come back. Like, yes,
8:40
Speaker 1: there was not that you should do that, but she
8:43
Speaker 1: didn't do that. You know, they'll survive, but they will survive.
8:49
Speaker 1: I bought a beautiful plant, was caring for her. Um.
8:53
Speaker 1: I watered her in the evening and I was letting
8:55
Speaker 1: her like dry out before bringing her in, and I
8:59
Speaker 1: forgot about her. And so the next day she was scorched,
9:03
Speaker 1: and so we named her like Marita, and she came back.
9:07
Speaker 1: She came back to live. She's fine, she's good now.
9:09
Speaker 1: Like we we like removed all the bird pieces. I
9:12
Speaker 1: apologized profusely. I felt terrible, And now she's back. She's thriving.
9:17
Speaker 1: Like two years later, three years later, she's good, resilient, tough, exactly,
9:24
Speaker 1: and we love that. See that's the type of plant
9:26
Speaker 1: that I need, I can that I can handle. So yeah,
9:30
Speaker 1: I think really, in my apartment, the only plant that
9:33
Speaker 1: I have is like my big pothos in my bathroom.
9:37
Speaker 1: What else do I need? I have to keep my
9:40
Speaker 1: dog alive. I have to keep myself alive. I can
9:42
Speaker 1: keep the pothos alive. Trying to keep the podcast alive,
9:46
Speaker 1: like it's I can't handle anymore. Oh my god, I mean,
9:51
Speaker 1: speaking of keeping the podcast alive. You know, I was
9:55
Speaker 1: reading this article about I think maybe you shared it
9:58
Speaker 1: to me, shared it with me actually, and it's about
10:01
Speaker 1: people that were going into plant debt. Oh yes, yes,
10:05
Speaker 1: let's talk about it. So there's like, you know, a
10:08
Speaker 1: very online plant community. They share their tips. They have
10:13
Speaker 1: small apartments, big houses, what have you. It varies and
10:19
Speaker 1: there's full of plants. It's expensive to purchase plants, even
10:23
Speaker 1: if you go to a nursery. The more exotic the
10:26
Speaker 1: plant is, the longer it's been alive. Like you can
10:29
Speaker 1: find cacti that are five because they're years old and
10:35
Speaker 1: that's all the care that it went into them, right,
10:37
Speaker 1: And so it's expensive, like unless you're propagating, um, it
10:41
Speaker 1: can add up. It can be a very expensive hobby.
10:45
Speaker 1: And when you go to boutique plant shops right there
10:47
Speaker 1: a little they tend to be a little pricier. And
10:50
Speaker 1: so there was like this article by Input mag where
10:55
Speaker 1: they examine a hoarding problem in the plant community and
11:00
Speaker 1: folks that were even going into debt, charging their credit
11:04
Speaker 1: cards to keep up with like a perceived plant lifestyle
11:09
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Truly, and I remember at one point early
11:14
Speaker 1: in the pandemic tweeting a very real question all the
11:17
Speaker 1: plant influencers online. I want to know at any given time,
11:21
Speaker 1: how many of those plants are like near death, how
11:24
Speaker 1: many are actually alive, and how often are they replacing
11:28
Speaker 1: plants for the graham because as we've established, it's hard
11:33
Speaker 1: to keep these babies alive. And I refused to believe
11:36
Speaker 1: that all those very vastly different types of plants are
11:39
Speaker 1: all surviving in the same apartment. It's in the same ecosystem,
11:43
Speaker 1: you know. Like I think about one of the reasons why,
11:46
Speaker 1: Like the succulents here, my grandma will repot them and
11:50
Speaker 1: propagate them, and then they do just fine and all
11:54
Speaker 1: their little vases. But it's because they're still on the
11:57
Speaker 1: same property, like this is their environy. It, so they're fine.
12:02
Speaker 1: But you're bringing plants in from all kinds of different places.
12:05
Speaker 1: And I don't know. I'm no botanist. I'm just I'm
12:08
Speaker 1: just speculating. This is what I think is happening. But
12:13
Speaker 1: it also made me think, like can a hobby lead
12:16
Speaker 1: to debt? Absolutely, Like look at us in the podcast.
12:19
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, at this point we keep going because
12:24
Speaker 1: we have to. We have invested too much. We've spent
12:27
Speaker 1: too much, like we have, we have to keep going.
12:32
Speaker 1: We also love it, but we also have to keep going. Yes,
12:35
Speaker 1: so we do love it. We do love it. Um,
12:37
Speaker 1: we're not quitting, but yes, we have many incentives to
12:40
Speaker 1: podcast forever. Yeah, I mean another fascinating well, yeah, we're
12:46
Speaker 1: podcasting forever. Basically, it took me a second to process
12:52
Speaker 1: that I'm like, oh yeah, this is like signs in blood. Yeah,
12:56
Speaker 1: you know, like this is happening, this is this is
12:59
Speaker 1: we're doing this. Oh yeah, baptized in prosecco, baby sealed. Yeah,
13:08
Speaker 1: put it on my tombstone. Yea truly. Anyways, So, like
13:14
Speaker 1: another really fascinating thing was that it's it can also
13:17
Speaker 1: be a federal crime if you steal a succulent from
13:21
Speaker 1: a California state park. And there was a man that
13:24
Speaker 1: got two years in prison for ceiling plants worth a
13:28
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousan dollars a California state park. And
13:32
Speaker 1: this wasn't Northern California, but like I have to believe
13:35
Speaker 1: that this probably happens to like here all these plant people.
13:41
Speaker 1: Have you ever been driving I'm sure you have, but
13:44
Speaker 1: you're like driving down the road on a freeway on
13:47
Speaker 1: a street and you see like a beautiful succulent and
13:50
Speaker 1: it's definitely crossed my mind, Like what if I were
13:52
Speaker 1: to get a clipping of this? Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah,
13:56
Speaker 1: it's um not so much has it crossed my mind?
14:00
Speaker 1: As like growing up, my mom and my grandma like
14:02
Speaker 1: would do that, like they would take clippings allegedly my
14:06
Speaker 1: grandfather would take roses and he would bring into us.
14:09
Speaker 1: It was very sweet. But when I'm driving sometimes I
14:12
Speaker 1: think I've never done it, but I've definitely, Like, especially
14:15
Speaker 1: after reading this article, I was like, well, we're never
14:17
Speaker 1: doing that. No, that's jail time. There are some beautiful
14:21
Speaker 1: plants out there. You know what my mom used to do? Okay,
14:25
Speaker 1: growing up, so things like plants are so expensive, right,
14:28
Speaker 1: decorative river rocks for the garden so expensive. So you
14:34
Speaker 1: know what my mother used to do allegedly, allegedly what
14:38
Speaker 1: would she allegedly do. We would be driving down like that,
14:41
Speaker 1: let's say the freeway, like but out like in the
14:45
Speaker 1: San Gabro Valley out towards like a Zoosa Glendora by
14:48
Speaker 1: like the the you know, there's big rocks on the
14:52
Speaker 1: side of the highway. My mother used to pull over
14:55
Speaker 1: on the side of the freeway, have us get out
14:59
Speaker 1: on the side of the road and grabbed the river
15:02
Speaker 1: the rocks, the decorative rocks, and put them in the
15:04
Speaker 1: car and take them home and then she would decorate
15:06
Speaker 1: the yard with them because she didn't want to send
15:09
Speaker 1: many on rocks at home depot and so like she
15:12
Speaker 1: would be driving and if she saw rocks that she
15:14
Speaker 1: really liked. She'd be like, okay, kids, go get those
15:18
Speaker 1: does and bring it to the car. It was like
15:21
Speaker 1: a six month period of our life until she completed
15:25
Speaker 1: the whole yard. Allegedly, all this happened. There's no proof,
15:31
Speaker 1: there's zero evidence, zero proof that this happened, but it happened.
15:36
Speaker 1: Those rocks are expensive. When I was, when we were
15:39
Speaker 1: redoing our little like we have like a little tiny
15:43
Speaker 1: patio area in our backyard, and we were my putting
15:47
Speaker 1: when I were redoing it hid to the pandemic. We
15:49
Speaker 1: were gardening, we were redoing things, we were crafting. You were, Yeah,
15:54
Speaker 1: that era of my life is unfortunately over. But I
15:57
Speaker 1: had a good, good segment of like E I y,
16:01
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I was doing everything. I miss her,
16:06
Speaker 1: but we're more busy now. You're being very handy. I was.
16:10
Speaker 1: I was also didn't have nails at the time. The
16:13
Speaker 1: nails were gone. But all that to say, going to
16:16
Speaker 1: home depot, I had no idea how expensive those rocks were.
16:19
Speaker 1: I had never had to purchase them before. So expensive,
16:24
Speaker 1: so expensive. It's highway robbery. I mean, in my case,
16:28
Speaker 1: literally we were robbing rocks off the side of the highway.
16:32
Speaker 1: But it's only because the prices are so jacked up
16:35
Speaker 1: in stores, or we wouldn't be driven to do such things, right.
16:40
Speaker 1: I mean, we could make the case for for the
16:42
Speaker 1: man that stole the plants as well. I mean, yes,
16:46
Speaker 1: succulents are expensive. That does seem like a terrible thing
16:50
Speaker 1: to be charged with, Like, come on, come on, two years,
16:54
Speaker 1: Come on, guys, can we get them back? Can he
16:57
Speaker 1: return them? Like that's all? Just replant them? Just come on.
17:04
Speaker 1: I just also think that there's a lot of other
17:07
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other bad, bad things going on
17:10
Speaker 1: that maybe deserve that attention, but not this. Not clippings
17:16
Speaker 1: sounds terrible. Can like California fucking get a shipped together? Please?
17:20
Speaker 1: I know. I mean, look, I'm pretty sure that in
17:24
Speaker 1: the next ten years, with like the environmental issues we're facing,
17:29
Speaker 1: we need to be thinking about where we're getting water from,
17:32
Speaker 1: not who's taking clippings from the park. You know. But
17:36
Speaker 1: I digress. That's an episode for another day. Yes, the
17:41
Speaker 1: water crisis, the water crisis unfortunately, um, but today we're
17:46
Speaker 1: actually going to be talking with plant enthusiast plant parent,
17:50
Speaker 1: plant parent Andy Solch, who is now an entrepreneur. She's
17:55
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. He's a plant entrepreneur, artist, business owner, Anti
18:03
Speaker 1: Sourch of latin x with Plants. She's gonna be telling
18:05
Speaker 1: us about her journey from grassroots organizer to artists to
18:10
Speaker 1: business owner, how they all intertwine, and how necessity led
18:15
Speaker 1: her to creating her business. Make sure that you guys
18:20
Speaker 1: leave us a review on Apple podcast and leave us
18:23
Speaker 1: a voice message on our website look at got our
18:26
Speaker 1: radio dot com. Let us know what you think and
18:29
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I hope you enjoy m m m m
18:52
Speaker 1: m m m of it and ship all right. Listeners
19:23
Speaker 1: were super excited to have on look up our radio
19:26
Speaker 1: and the souch Uh, founder of latin x with Plants,
19:31
Speaker 1: and a whole host of other cool projects and initiatives
19:34
Speaker 1: and work that you also have under your belt. Welcome
19:38
Speaker 1: to the show. Thank you for being here today. We're
19:40
Speaker 1: super excited to hear from you. We've been following your
19:43
Speaker 1: latin X with Plants journey from Instagram page to now
19:47
Speaker 1: having to physical locations here in l A, So please
19:51
Speaker 1: say hi to all of our listeners tuning in from home.
19:55
Speaker 1: Hi everyone, this is Andy. I'm very honored to be
20:00
Speaker 1: speaking with you badass ladies. I've been seeing your journey
20:04
Speaker 1: as well, so it feels good be constantly supporting each other,
20:09
Speaker 1: especially between brown women. Yeah, I definitely feel well. First off,
20:15
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here. But I definitely
20:17
Speaker 1: feel like there's in l A. There's like this ecosystem
20:20
Speaker 1: of Latin X artists, women of color like doing really
20:24
Speaker 1: dope innovative things in this in multiple spaces and avenue.
20:28
Speaker 1: So it's really great to have you on. I know
20:31
Speaker 1: you've been doing lots of different things over the years,
20:34
Speaker 1: um in Boil Heights and just l A in general,
20:37
Speaker 1: so I would love to get started by hearing about
20:40
Speaker 1: your journey as an artist and how you became a
20:44
Speaker 1: business owner, and perhaps how those two things are intertwined. Yeah,
20:49
Speaker 1: of course, I think. I think the root of um Or,
20:54
Speaker 1: like the passions that I have have come from from
20:57
Speaker 1: community organizing. I always stay been grassroots organizing that really
21:02
Speaker 1: pivoted me into becoming like this Bossita. I guess. I
21:09
Speaker 1: guess folks would say I honestly, I don't know what
21:12
Speaker 1: kind of role I'm taking on. I feel like I
21:15
Speaker 1: take so many roles, but I think community building has
21:19
Speaker 1: always been at the root of everything that I do.
21:22
Speaker 1: I think it's started with this nonprofit, our organization called
21:27
Speaker 1: helf Help Graphics. They really gave me the foundation for,
21:34
Speaker 1: you know, what was to become of me as an organizer,
21:38
Speaker 1: artist and now a plant business owner. So I was
21:45
Speaker 1: working with them, um at the Prince Studio. But let
21:49
Speaker 1: me go back a little bit. I guess I was
21:51
Speaker 1: taking the workshops and that was really awesome to be
21:55
Speaker 1: a student that evolved into an actual structure and actually
22:01
Speaker 1: landing like a dream job of mine, which was to
22:04
Speaker 1: become a master printer or the master the next master priner.
22:10
Speaker 1: I was working so hard to become the first female
22:13
Speaker 1: master priner that you know, when I had to quit,
22:17
Speaker 1: it just really crushed me. But um, while I was
22:21
Speaker 1: there working, I also co founded a collective, all Women
22:28
Speaker 1: of Color by Collective, and I organized with them for
22:33
Speaker 1: about four or five years, and it was with the
22:36
Speaker 1: intention of empowering women through a bicycle and we right,
22:42
Speaker 1: we would write every full moon, we would talk about
22:44
Speaker 1: issues that we're affecting, specifically women of color in our neighborhood.
22:49
Speaker 1: So it was kind of like a healing circle. It
22:52
Speaker 1: just cheose meander and then just talking about what was
22:54
Speaker 1: happening in our personal life with that judgment, and then
22:58
Speaker 1: of course um uh I segued into Nissanta's which isn't
23:04
Speaker 1: awe also the same kind of um vision of empowering women,
23:10
Speaker 1: but this someone was through art and we would organize
23:14
Speaker 1: at selbl Graphics and and just taking up space and
23:17
Speaker 1: inviting other women who didn't have the means to become
23:20
Speaker 1: or just be an artist. We we we gave them
23:24
Speaker 1: the tools in the space, free of charge and judgment,
23:28
Speaker 1: of course, and then what happened. And then I was
23:33
Speaker 1: at Supple Graphics. My dad get got really really ill
23:36
Speaker 1: and I needed to help him. I didn't want to
23:39
Speaker 1: sell my art work. I feel like very insecure about it.
23:42
Speaker 1: I just felt it was something really personal. And I
23:46
Speaker 1: started having pop ups at self Help Graphics, and that's
23:49
Speaker 1: kind of how it started. Um the Page, of course,
23:53
Speaker 1: was influenced by Black with Plants, started by Durrell who
23:59
Speaker 1: was based in d C. And he was highlighting the
24:05
Speaker 1: black community in a way that wasn't being highlighted the way,
24:09
Speaker 1: in a way that it was more than just aesthetics.
24:11
Speaker 1: And I felt like we had so much in common.
24:15
Speaker 1: We had organizing roots, backgrounds, and I was like, I
24:20
Speaker 1: wandered to highlight my community using plants, because essentially that's
24:25
Speaker 1: that's who we are. It's a big part of our DNA,
24:28
Speaker 1: our ancestral knowledge that we should be carrying it on.
24:31
Speaker 1: And I felt like I wanted to do that. But yeah,
24:37
Speaker 1: that's kind of like the just how it started. Of
24:40
Speaker 1: course I can go deeper into the open. It really
24:45
Speaker 1: is so interesting how one area of your life feeds
24:49
Speaker 1: into the other. And I'm wondering if you can kind
24:52
Speaker 1: of give us a little bit more insight into the
24:55
Speaker 1: specifics for those listening at home who we have a
24:58
Speaker 1: lot of creatives and our this and folks who are
25:01
Speaker 1: business owners as well. And I know people look at
25:04
Speaker 1: a project like yours and think, wow, this is very aspirational,
25:08
Speaker 1: you know, from uh the art, the organizing the Instagram
25:12
Speaker 1: account to now the physical locations. And if you could
25:16
Speaker 1: share just a little bit about how you made the
25:18
Speaker 1: jump and also what inspired you to take it from
25:21
Speaker 1: the digital sort of space too, Let's make this an
25:25
Speaker 1: in person situation. UM. I always felt like connecting with
25:31
Speaker 1: people on a on a personal level, UM, on a
25:35
Speaker 1: physical level was really important, especially I mean it got
25:40
Speaker 1: really tricky because of the shutdown, right, But using the
25:44
Speaker 1: digital platform was a really easy way to connect with
25:47
Speaker 1: people on a larger scale, but on a smaller scale.
25:52
Speaker 1: In my community, it was easy for for folks to
25:55
Speaker 1: approach me, ask about what I'm doing, about what I've
25:59
Speaker 1: been doing. UM, So the pop ups really helped out. UM.
26:04
Speaker 1: Of course, you know necessity. You know, we we are
26:08
Speaker 1: a community of minimal means, and but this is the
26:13
Speaker 1: thing that we've noticed that we have a way of
26:17
Speaker 1: turning a bad situation and becoming proactive. And in my case,
26:24
Speaker 1: it was okay, my family member is it's very ill,
26:28
Speaker 1: they need money, let's sell something. Of course, I wanted
26:32
Speaker 1: to self whatever whatever I could. But I thought plants
26:38
Speaker 1: was something that wasn't really being um brought to the community,
26:43
Speaker 1: or at least these types of plants, these like rare
26:46
Speaker 1: kind of more tropical plants that I know, you know,
26:49
Speaker 1: all of Latin America has them everywhere around and you
26:52
Speaker 1: know in their native countries, but here they're more sacred,
26:56
Speaker 1: you know, it's almost like um their identity to plants.
27:00
Speaker 1: So it's really easy for folks to come. When I
27:04
Speaker 1: started doing the pop ups at my house, it was
27:07
Speaker 1: easy for them to come book an appointment and kind
27:10
Speaker 1: of have that one in one connection with not only
27:13
Speaker 1: with their plan with me, and have almost a moment
27:16
Speaker 1: of therapy and talk about what was going on with
27:19
Speaker 1: them and how plants were really helping them, and you know,
27:22
Speaker 1: a lot of crime sessions were happening. And I think
27:25
Speaker 1: that's how I built that foundation for my my business,
27:29
Speaker 1: which happened almost four months after my first pop up
27:34
Speaker 1: from my house. So what would you say the timeline
27:38
Speaker 1: was from like pop ups in your home to like
27:41
Speaker 1: break and mortar. Oh my god, like in the blink
27:44
Speaker 1: of an eye, my head was. My head is still spinning.
27:47
Speaker 1: I feel like I don't want to open up another
27:49
Speaker 1: shop for another decade. I'm just it's I'm very grateful,
27:56
Speaker 1: But the energy that goes and the love that goes
28:00
Speaker 1: into it is just like I said, the switch never
28:04
Speaker 1: turns off. So it's not until I'm about to have
28:08
Speaker 1: a nervous breakdown then it's like, okay, I'm supposed to
28:11
Speaker 1: have vacation or or something like that. But my first
28:19
Speaker 1: pop up was two thousand nineteen around Christmas because that's
28:23
Speaker 1: the time he got I remember, he got really sick pandemic.
28:28
Speaker 1: The shutdown happened. So by Mother's Day I had my
28:35
Speaker 1: first pop up, and then August or July, Yeah, July
28:42
Speaker 1: I had my my my soft opening of my first
28:46
Speaker 1: brick and mortar, and then Day of the Dead November
28:51
Speaker 1: that's when I had my opening, my second opening, and yeah,
28:57
Speaker 1: those those were a wild times. I always think about them,
29:01
Speaker 1: being like, it's like, ma'am, like I feel like man,
29:07
Speaker 1: and nothing can ever go right for too long because
29:11
Speaker 1: something always has to happen, and it's just the balance
29:14
Speaker 1: that you just have to accept. You know that the
29:19
Speaker 1: the openings were great, but at the same time, my
29:23
Speaker 1: dad was like, and I see you, like fighting for
29:27
Speaker 1: his life. So it was it was like a bittersweet
29:31
Speaker 1: moment for me that I didn't know I could really
29:34
Speaker 1: savor the triumph of opening up something so monumental. I
29:40
Speaker 1: guess that it was for me, but I think if
29:42
Speaker 1: it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have had that. So
29:45
Speaker 1: it keeps me balanced. I guess I love this conversation
29:52
Speaker 1: because it's bringing in so many different elements, Like there's
29:55
Speaker 1: the family connection, there's the personal journey, there's the digital community,
30:00
Speaker 1: there's opening up you know, the commercial space. We noticed
30:04
Speaker 1: that in the course of the and the pandemic, right
30:06
Speaker 1: is like the backdrop to all of this, And we
30:08
Speaker 1: noticed this huge plant boom at least online. Even the
30:12
Speaker 1: l A Times Uh started up like a plant vertical
30:15
Speaker 1: and featured you in fact and Latin X with plants.
30:19
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering if you could tell us a little
30:20
Speaker 1: bit about like your maybe perspective on the plant boom
30:26
Speaker 1: and the renewed interest I guess in plants, whether it's
30:30
Speaker 1: aesthetically or for the reasons you've talked about, like cultural
30:34
Speaker 1: and ancestral. I you know what, I felt like there
30:41
Speaker 1: was like a like a movement already happening of of
30:46
Speaker 1: the like like in of tropical and decorative plants already happening,
30:52
Speaker 1: but it was mostly in the white community, right, because
30:55
Speaker 1: I feel like it was very elitist. It's like, oh,
30:57
Speaker 1: who has the latest or the the newest or the weirdest,
31:02
Speaker 1: the rarest plant. And for us it was like, Dawn,
31:05
Speaker 1: we're lucky if we can even afford you know, the
31:08
Speaker 1: basic ones. So to me it was like, yes, I
31:12
Speaker 1: want to highlight these plants, but I also wanted to
31:15
Speaker 1: bring it down to the basics, like what does it
31:18
Speaker 1: mean to come into your home and just be greeted
31:21
Speaker 1: by greenery and what that does to your mental state
31:25
Speaker 1: and your spirit. Um, how how these plants can really
31:31
Speaker 1: change your mood from like going outside, Because at the time,
31:35
Speaker 1: I was living in front of Hollembeg Park And if
31:37
Speaker 1: you're familiar with boil Hinds Hall, Hollembeg Park was coined
31:42
Speaker 1: later recently the dirtiest park in Los Angeles. And yes,
31:47
Speaker 1: Kevin alone, I'm talking to you because he's in charge
31:52
Speaker 1: of this district and it's one of the coolest parks
31:57
Speaker 1: from a distance, but you come and get close, it's horrendous.
32:01
Speaker 1: It's so sad. How is this possible that we're so
32:04
Speaker 1: close to downtown, to the arts district, um, and this
32:11
Speaker 1: is happening. So I was walking by, you know, the
32:16
Speaker 1: entrance of my home. I go in and my my
32:18
Speaker 1: roommate who owns the house at the time, she did
32:22
Speaker 1: such a great job in incorporating um native plants, pollinating plants,
32:28
Speaker 1: and she was very intentional with her garden that like,
32:31
Speaker 1: how is it that us with minimal means can transform
32:34
Speaker 1: something like this, But our city, with like the biggest
32:38
Speaker 1: budget in the nation has this going on. So when
32:42
Speaker 1: people were coming to to our pop ups. They noticed that,
32:46
Speaker 1: and they noticed that these plants, whether it was one
32:50
Speaker 1: or two, they were transforming their their homes, their insides
32:54
Speaker 1: and their outside, you know, the of their homes. So
32:58
Speaker 1: they could see it right away. So I'm kind of
33:00
Speaker 1: thankful that that was going on. You know, I was
33:03
Speaker 1: able to show them like, look, you could do this
33:06
Speaker 1: with very minimal means um. But that answers the question. Yeah.
33:12
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like the common thread here is
33:15
Speaker 1: like necessity is the mother of invention. Like you were,
33:19
Speaker 1: you were going through a health crisis with your father,
33:22
Speaker 1: which led you to starting this plant business. At the
33:25
Speaker 1: same time, there's a community in a pandemic, multiple community
33:28
Speaker 1: the nation was in a pandemic and limited access to
33:32
Speaker 1: green space. And I think that from my perspective, like
33:36
Speaker 1: that's why there was like a resurgence of like plant parenthood.
33:40
Speaker 1: Um because even if maybe we have been disconnected from
33:43
Speaker 1: it as a community, maybe on like the millennial level,
33:45
Speaker 1: like our parents have definitely been like you know, steady
33:49
Speaker 1: plant parenthoods forever. I know, like my mom has a
33:53
Speaker 1: plant in our backyard that's like literally my age is
33:56
Speaker 1: literally twenty eight years old and it used to be
33:58
Speaker 1: at my grandmother's house and now it's like here with us,
34:00
Speaker 1: and so to see like the reconnection, I think is
34:03
Speaker 1: really beautiful. And I think your shop multiple shops now
34:08
Speaker 1: like give folks that access and maybe have been disconnected
34:12
Speaker 1: from it. Um Also, you know you're located in Boil Heights,
34:16
Speaker 1: and I know that that's also where you're from. And
34:18
Speaker 1: so I'm curious, like you being a community member opening
34:23
Speaker 1: up shops in the community, investing in the community. You
34:27
Speaker 1: have multiple events, you do partnerships with Planted Parenthood, you
34:33
Speaker 1: make the your shop venue for different organs as well.
34:38
Speaker 1: So how do you think this is in some way
34:41
Speaker 1: slowing gentrification in Boil Heights. So I'm very fortunate that
34:49
Speaker 1: I have like the community supporting me, supporting my business.
34:53
Speaker 1: And I honestly, I I thank the fact that I
34:59
Speaker 1: was able to organized in my community for like I
35:04
Speaker 1: guess twelve years now because it was free work. But
35:08
Speaker 1: and I learned a lot from all of that. But
35:10
Speaker 1: I didn't know that would essentially be my network, my
35:14
Speaker 1: my support system, and they kind of saw. I feel
35:18
Speaker 1: like a lot of people have take pride in me
35:20
Speaker 1: because they saw me from like this little knuckle ahead.
35:23
Speaker 1: That was just um struggling to get by to like
35:27
Speaker 1: growing into an organizer or an artist, a professional and
35:31
Speaker 1: now a business owner. I do, I do thank my
35:35
Speaker 1: community for that. Um. Sorry I got sidetracked, but yeah,
35:43
Speaker 1: I think having the the locations, especially through these organizations
35:51
Speaker 1: like Inclusive Action, who are actually opening up the door
35:55
Speaker 1: the possibility for people like myself who don't have great credit,
35:59
Speaker 1: who don't don't have you know, the means to own
36:02
Speaker 1: commercial property. They're giving us that opportunity. So the program
36:07
Speaker 1: I think is in collaboration with eLAC and they are
36:11
Speaker 1: giving us a chance like in five to seven years
36:14
Speaker 1: to possibly own our commercial property. And and and it's
36:17
Speaker 1: angst such job as my two locations, and they're very intentional.
36:21
Speaker 1: The places that I opened it up, I wanted to
36:23
Speaker 1: be in Boil Heights, um, especially because my dad would
36:28
Speaker 1: say whenever we would pass by, you'd say, this reminds
36:31
Speaker 1: me of Mexico. This, this feels like home, back when
36:35
Speaker 1: there were still a lot of vendors. And it was
36:37
Speaker 1: a while ago, but I feel like they're kind of
36:39
Speaker 1: creeping back with you know, this whole movement of vendor rights,
36:43
Speaker 1: which I also I give props to inclusive action for
36:46
Speaker 1: avricating for them. My dad was a taketo. My mom
36:50
Speaker 1: you know, was also a street vendor. Um, so I
36:54
Speaker 1: take that entrepreneur um spirit with me. So I want
36:59
Speaker 1: to preserved boil hides. I want to preserve and and
37:02
Speaker 1: hopefully like I don't want to say inspired, but I
37:07
Speaker 1: want like hopefully motivate people to start their own business
37:11
Speaker 1: and if they can have a human boil hides even
37:13
Speaker 1: better because we are still we still have a chance
37:16
Speaker 1: to kind of slow it down. My first location actually
37:20
Speaker 1: is getting um this demolished and they're gonna be building
37:25
Speaker 1: and apartment complex. And if I hadn't had the gun
37:30
Speaker 1: us to keep growing, I probably would have just stayed
37:32
Speaker 1: there and gone displaced. This is really um insightful and
37:42
Speaker 1: helpful background for folks who are in l A and
37:45
Speaker 1: looking to start their own businesses. There are so many
37:48
Speaker 1: women of color in particular who have side hustles, who
37:52
Speaker 1: have small businesses, who are artists. So I really appreciate
37:56
Speaker 1: you taking the time to share that info because I
37:58
Speaker 1: know our listeners definitely will look into it and follow
38:01
Speaker 1: up on it. So that being said, for those listening,
38:04
Speaker 1: how can people follow you where can they visit you?
38:08
Speaker 1: Where can they shop for plants? And how can they
38:10
Speaker 1: support latin X with Plants. Sure, my, I have a website,
38:16
Speaker 1: so latin x with Plants dot com. We have Instagram,
38:20
Speaker 1: which is one of our most active platforms, again latin
38:24
Speaker 1: X with Plants. We have a Facebook that needs some love,
38:27
Speaker 1: but I'm kind of running the whole show, so um,
38:31
Speaker 1: one thing at a time. We have a TikTok also,
38:35
Speaker 1: which is intimidating, but I'm getting there. And our two
38:40
Speaker 1: locations are on Sessuch Travis twenty hundreds of such Travis
38:44
Speaker 1: and the one that I'm at now, the newest one
38:46
Speaker 1: is twenty two zero eight to Such Travis And this
38:50
Speaker 1: is our biggest location yet and it has a greenhouse
38:53
Speaker 1: in the back. We can we're offering more UM services
38:58
Speaker 1: like we're potting only homes for you, teaching you about
39:02
Speaker 1: your plants. But yeah, it's here and from what I
39:06
Speaker 1: consider like downtown Boil. I love that. UM. I was
39:13
Speaker 1: wondering if actually you had a social media manager? Do
39:16
Speaker 1: you handle all the the accounts yourself? Sadly yes, so
39:21
Speaker 1: please be be kind to my know your content is amazing,
39:26
Speaker 1: like it looks like you have a social media manager,
39:29
Speaker 1: but as many of our folks know, we were multiple hats.
39:33
Speaker 1: We are the social media managers, the PR person, the boss.
39:37
Speaker 1: We do it all. Um. Finally I want to add, oh, sorry,
39:41
Speaker 1: go ahead, UM. I think this is really important for
39:44
Speaker 1: me to say, Yes, I run all of my my pages,
39:48
Speaker 1: but I surround myself with hilarious women, women that like
39:53
Speaker 1: have the this tenacity that I don't have, so it
39:57
Speaker 1: rubs off. Like one of the reasons why I opened
39:59
Speaker 1: up my first location, it was because my home girl
40:01
Speaker 1: was like, there's a shop, you know, being rented right here,
40:04
Speaker 1: you should check into it or look into it. And
40:08
Speaker 1: I didn't have it in me. And but if it
40:11
Speaker 1: weren't for her pushing me, I think it's that's why
40:15
Speaker 1: it's really important. And I thank god that I organized
40:18
Speaker 1: with a lot of women, fam wear, trans Lon, binary folks,
40:23
Speaker 1: because that's that's your marketing team. That's your team that
40:27
Speaker 1: needs that that you need to be surrounded yourself with.
40:32
Speaker 1: I love that. So I would love to end on
40:34
Speaker 1: like a little fun note, Um, do you have any
40:38
Speaker 1: plant care tips for the perpetual plant killer? For the
40:44
Speaker 1: serial plant killers out there? I would say, get a
40:49
Speaker 1: moisture reader. A moisture reader honestly really helped me learn
40:54
Speaker 1: how my soil reacts to weather, to my over doting
41:02
Speaker 1: of plants. It will remind me that too much love
41:08
Speaker 1: is possible, and you need to let your plants do
41:11
Speaker 1: their thing, you know, talk to them, check in on them,
41:15
Speaker 1: but let them be. I think it's one of my
41:20
Speaker 1: my care tips. You know, it's with yourself, like don't overindulge,
41:24
Speaker 1: don't over you know, self care is important, but it's
41:30
Speaker 1: also like, Okay, we have so many things. We got
41:32
Speaker 1: a balance. So yeah, and stick to the easy one.
41:36
Speaker 1: Stick to Just because you want to be a plant mom,
41:39
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you have to get every plant under the sun.
41:43
Speaker 1: Stick to the easy ones. Excellent advice. Andy, Thank you
41:48
Speaker 1: so for Thank you so much for taking the time
41:50
Speaker 1: to chat with us today. Listeners. Make sure you check
41:53
Speaker 1: out Latin Next Plants and that concludes our interview.