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Victor Sosa always loved plants. But it wasn't until the Denver entrepreneur saw a post online that he realized he might be able to turn his passion into a business opportunity. He didn't just make the sale. He made houseplants accessible to his community in a whole new way.

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Host and producer: May Ortega Lead producer: Luis Antonio Perez Editors: Erin Jones, Andrew Villegas Mixing: Rebekah Romberg Additional producers: Jo Erickson, Ana Campbell Theme music by Pedro Lumbrano; additional music courtesy Universal Production Music Cover art: Mia Rincón Executive producers: Brad Turner, Kevin Dale Thanks also to Hart van Denburg, Jodi Gersh, Clara Shelton, Matt Herz, Kim Nguyen, Brittany Werges and CPR's Latino Audience Working Group. <a href="http://quienarewe.org/">QuienAreWe.org</a> Follow May on Twitter: @MayVOrtega Find The Plant Room on Instagram: @PlantRoomDenver

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Victor Sosa: So my parents worked a ton. I would only see them for like a little bit of time. So my mom taught me to take care of the plants that she had. May Ortega: Okay. Victor: As a kid, it was more of, like, practical necessity. So she's like, this is how you take care of my plants. And if I find out you're not watering them, you're getting the chancla [laughter]. You know, like, so it was practical. But you know, 10, 11, 12 years old, and I'm over here, like taking care of the plants, ‘cause my mom's like sleeping, right? Like she got home, like super late. May: Tired. Victor: So I'm like, all right, well let's take care of these plants and hope I don't get the chancla and kill all of these things [laughter].

May: Yeah. Victor Sosa started raising plants pretty early on in his life. Not because he wanted to, but because he had to fast forward to adulthood. Victor says plants rule everything in his life. But what makes someone go from doing boring housework reluctantly, to putting their whole livelihood on the line, doing that very same work?

From “Colorado Public Radio,” this is “¿Quién Are We?” exploring what it means to be Latine or Hispanic or Chicana or however you identify and diving into the beautiful things that make us who we are. I'm May Ortega. This time, we'll hear how a man turned a childhood chore into an adulthood revelation about himself and his community.

There are a lot of pieces that make up this living puzzle of who we are. Some of Victor’s include that he was born and raised in Denver. And he's a first generation Mexican American, though he hasn't always thought of himself that way.

Victor: I fully fully, like, identify as, like, Mexican American. Right? With, like, that stronger emphasis on the Mexican part. May: Mm-hmm. Victor: Which wasn't always the case. It was a little bit confusing. Right? ‘Cause of course my parents, I wouldn't say they're like super, super Mexican. Right? But we're over here eating like organ meat tacos and stuff like that. But I'm also going to like school with like – I was one of two brown kids in my elementary school, and then, same thing in my middle school and a couple in high school. So I was in, like, a very white environment. And so I sorta just identified that way. Right. [Laughter] yeah.

May: It's a culture that you're like, in.

Victor: …that I'm in. Right. All my friends are white, et cetera. Yeah. So I was like, I must be white, but like at home I'm brown.

May: Then he took a trip to Mexico City when he was on the cusp of adulthood.

Victor: I felt at home, but I realized that the version that I had, even living here right with my parents, super traditional, being of Mexican descent or pretty much any other Latin descent – I feel like when you go to the country of origin, if you're not expecting it, it catches you by surprise. ‘Cause like the food is different. The way they speak is different. So I just remember being there and I was like, I feel at home, but I realized that the version I had here was like the, the light version versus the real, the real deal.

May: And that gave Victor some perspective. He was the real deal too. He began to look inward with kinder eyes, and he gave more credence to the Mexican part of being Mexican American. He became less ashamed of who he wasn't. And instead took pride in who he was and who he could be. And something else you should know about Victor is the fact that he's an only child. And he is very much aware of the pressures that come with that.

Victor: First generation kid you're supposed to, like, get good grades. And then you, you get a big boy job…

May: Yeah. You make that good money.

Victor: …doing something that you like. But the main thing is the good money. Right?

May: Exactly. So make your parents proud. You wanna do better than your parents did. Right.

Victor: And you sorta, you feel like you owe it to them, right? Yeah. And they never tell you, like, “hey, you owe me anything.” But doing the opposite feels like it's like a slap in the face to your parents. Right?

May: In pursuit of meeting those unspoken expectations, Victor earned not one but two master’s degrees. Then he used them to land a job as a data analyst. And it was pretty demanding, like 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, six days a week demanding. He wasn't unhappy by any means, but this wasn't his passion. And after a few years he was getting bored.

Victor: It was one of those jobs where there was a lot of like, hurry up and wait kind of thing. So I had a lot of, I don't wanna say downtime, but a lot of time where I didn't necessarily have to be like paying attention.

May: Something to know about Victor is that he's always been entrepreneurial.

Victor: I've always had this thing about like, like selling things. Right. So I was at my job, and I've had several other stances, like a, like a reseller of things. Right? So, like, for like six months, I used to only sell, like, coffee mugs on eBay. Right? Like collectable coffee mugs.

Victor: Like little things like that. Right.

May: And apparently this habit of hustling runs in the family.

Victor: When my grandmother was younger, she used to have all these like side gigs. So she would, like, go to the market and sell a couple things. Even though, like, she – same thing. She didn't have to, but she just thought it was fun. Like…

Victor: It's in, it's in my blood to be like, let's, let's sell some stuff. Side hustles are my favorite thing.

May: So Victor had a couple of hobbies. One of them was reselling things and the other was going down rabbit holes into different topics. One such topic was plants. Since he already had a bit of a history with them, he spent some of his downtime at work reading about different species. What conditions are suitable for which ones? Things like that. Then one day these hobbies merged.

Victor: I don't know if it's still around, but there used to be an app called Let Go. It's basically like a second hand reselling app for local stuff. And I saw someone was selling plants and I was like, that's so weird. Like this app is for couches and chotchkies. [Laughter] This is not for plants. I'm like, sure enough – it was a, a lady in Aurora that had just posted. I was like, that's strange. Right? I was like, who's – don't you just get your plants at Home Depot? Or like the garden centers?

Victor: I was like, what was this lady doing? And just sort of put in the back of my mind, but it was there. Right. It was, like, lingering.

May: So it lingered and lingered. He already had some knowledge on plants and he was well versed in reselling. So eventually he decided to try it out himself.

Victor: The first set of plants I posted, I very clearly remember it was one cactus arrangement and then four potted plants. Something like super basic, very simple.

Victor: And yeah, it was like five things and I just posted them. And sure enough, you know, someone messaged me, like, right away. I remember it super clearly about the cactus arrangement. Right. And I was just like, so jazzed [laughter]. I remember it was $20. This is like, like two little cactus on this, and this, like, ceramic oval pot. And then to sweeten the pot, I put a little, like, resin garden gnome in it [laughter]. I remember – I'll never forget it. And this lady was like, “Hey, I'm interested.” Like I think I had it for like 30 bucks or something. She's like, I'll give you 20. I was, like, sold.

May: [Laughter] At first this was just Victor's usual side hustle. Only he traded selling mugs for house plants, but in time it got bigger. Victor started selling plants faster – buying, selling more and more. It started to creep into his work day. And you've told me that eventually you enlisted your parents' help in terms of space. [Laughter] So tell me about that.

Victor: Enlisted? I don't think that is really the best word. I think “forcibly volunteered” is more the, the better way to put it. I'm posting things like at night or, like, on my lunch break. Just any chance I could get, you know, I'm taking pictures, posting them, selling these plants, making arrangements to have them get picked up. The pickup location for all these plants – it was my parents' house [laughter].

Victor: Right. So, you know, like I would just be like, “Hey mom, such and such is gonna come at 12 on Wednesday to pick up blank.” Right. So I'm storing these things in their house because I live in an apartment downtown this whole time. I don't have the room for it.

I'm, I'm storing more and more things in their house, more and more things in their house. And like, that's why I said like unwilling volunteers. So they have a three bedroom home. So she's like just put all of it in the bedroom. Right. The one room that really didn't have anything. And it was like a little office. And I was like, oh, say no more. Right. So yeah, of course you gimme in this particular sense, you gimme an inch, I take a foot. I put those on the shelves on the wall, line the entire bedroom. I took the desk out, took everything out.

Victor: That's what I said, like I took a foot. I took a foot. Yeah. I took a foot.

May: The matter of meeting up with a total stranger to buy or sell something can be a little nerve wracking, at least for me personally. And that's what Victor was doing. Having strangers come into his parents' house to grab their plants.

Victor: And you would show up, I'd be like, “Oh, don't, don't worry. I promise you there's plants in there. ‘Cause this…”

Victor: Yeah. This isn't a trap. We're both just standing on my parents' driveway. You know? So I did that for, for a long time and people would come into their house. My dad's over here watching TV. My mom's, like, cooking. There were several times where my dad asked the people like, “Hey, like we're about to sit down for dinner. Do you guys want some dinner?”

Victor: And I'm like, “Dad. I’m tryin’ to run a business outta here.”

May: This method of posting online continued for a couple of years. But something to keep in mind is that throughout this time, Victor was very aware that he was a brown man selling to a clientele of mostly white people, mostly white women. People who looked like him or even his mom were few and far between. But hey, Victor didn't discriminate. Eventually he found himself setting up tents and tables in his parents' front yard on weekends, slinging plants left and right. It very much became a second job.

Victor: By this point, the spare bedroom was two spare bedrooms that I'm using for the, the plant room, right? The quote unquote plant room. It’s now all of a sudden two of their spare bedrooms. I got plants in their, like, guest bathroom. I got plants in my mom's kitchen. They're everywhere. Right? It’s become unsustainable. Even though they were still willing to let me continue to use their house. It was just not sustainable because the, the business by this point … So it was a full – business was expanding. So now my brain is like, well, as soon as it gets cold, I might have to move this whole operation back into my parents' house. I was like, no, like it's time to, you know, put up or shut up.

May: He had to choose between giving up the plant hustle or quitting his job. The very job that he shed tears for when he was hired, the job that helped him make his parents proud. And he'd be doing it to start his own business in a very competitive, very white market. That's after the break.

Victor Sosa had been selling plants out of his parents house for a couple of years. Meanwhile, he was working a very busy job that meant a lot to him. So he had to pick one. He decided to quit his job. He went all in with plants, and with that choice came another: keep selling out of his parents' home or move into his own space. And I don't mean his apartment. I mean a whole brick and mortar location, paying rent and everything. The thought of putting down thousands of dollars on this huge financial gamble was nerve wracking to say the least.

Victor: The rent and everyone's just nauseous just thinking about it.

May: After weeks of searching and careful calculation, Victor eventually settled on the most affordable spot he could find around Denver. It happened to be in a pretty Latino area, Federal Boulevard. For context, Federal is where I go when I want tacos that remind me of home, or when I'm craving some tamarindo, or gummy bears drowned in chamoy. Federal is the spot. And that is where Victor chose to be. And what did he choose to name his new business? Well, he thought it best to honor his humble beginnings.

Victor: The name of the store came because it was just the bedroom and I would just walk through their entire house with whoever was there for the appointment. And I'd be like the plant room's over here, the plant room's over here, and it's stuck.

[Sound of interior of the Plant Room, clients and Victor]

Victor (on recording): How are you doing? You doing okay still?

Unnamed client (on recording): Yeah. Thank you.

Victor (on recording): Awesome. If you have any questions, just let us know.

Unnamed Client (on recording): Yes. So I have this calathea medallion, and I think what happened…

Victor (on recording): So your calathea needs a humidifier. It needs to live pretty much close to a humidifier that is on, like, 24/7.

Unnamed client (on recording): Okay.

Victor (on recording): Yeah, just super high humidity.

Unnamed client (on recording): That’s all great information. Thank you. If it dies this time, at least I’ll know why [laughter].

May: Now full disclosure: I do shop at the Plant Room every so often. The very first time I went in, I was met with plants, obviously.

Victor: [explaining the contents of the store] Cacti, succulents up by our windows. So all the syngoniums, Arrowhead plants, commonly known as. I do have a ficus shivereana, the stanliana, Ring of Fire.

May: They were packed into every inch of the space. And it wasn't very big – around maybe 500 square feet. Long hanging vines crawled out of their pots and dangled over other shorter plants. Down the whole center of the shop, shelves stuffed with smaller plants hugged the walls. And boy was it humid. It smelled so fresh and crisp in the shop. You could compare it to a forest in scent and appearance, but you don't usually find cumbia music in nature. I still remember that from my first visit because it made me feel seen. It was a pleasant surprise. And cumbia isn't on all the time. When it is, it's great. Victor welcomed me in, not only on my first visit, but every visit after that. And if you have any questions about anything plant-related, Victor almost certainly has an answer.

Looking around this room. How many plants would you estimate are in here?

Victor: In – right, right now? Probably around like three to four hundred. Yeah. Not, not that many.

May: [Disbelievingly] Not that many [laughter]?

Victor: When it's fully, fully stocked, it can easily be a couple thousand plants in here.

As Victor was making his way through the world of house plants, he learned a few things about the plant trade in Denver. And one of them was about the demographics of his competition.

Victor: Now it's – now it's not like nothing that I think about. Right. But initially it was something that I was very aware of. Most other shops are, like, female-owned. Right. There's definitely … As far as I know, maybe I can think of, like, one now – maybe two now – that are owned by other men. But yeah, 99% of them are female-owned. White. Right? So the space is predominantly like white. And all of a sudden I'm just, I'm this brown man over here, like selling plants.

May: One reason I kept going back to the Plant Room is because it's owned by a brown man. I even told him when we met that that was a rarity.

Victor: Initial contact would be you coming to the store, and it's just me standing behind the counter. And I'm like, “Hey, you know, like if you have any questions, let me know.” And if you're not expecting it, I feel like people that are in the hobby that go to plant stores, like if they're not expecting it, they're like, who's this guy, you know? Yeah. Very, very strange at first. Right. ‘Cause I felt like people would look at me and maybe not even take me, like, a little bit seriously. Okay. You know, I'd be like, “if you have any questions, let me know.” I'm like, I know, you know what I'm talking about, but I feel like sometimes people would be like, “do you?”

May: [Laughter] Yeah. Do you – guy?

Victor: Guy? Guy selling plants, brown guy selling plants?

Victor: So I'm over here just trying to convince people that I know what I'm talking about. Back then, I was very, very much aware of it when I was doing the outdoor sales. I was very much aware of it. I wouldn't say it's something I had to overcome necessarily in a bad way. But it has been something that I've had to sort of push through and just be like, pushing through my narrative.

May: When he opened his shop, Victor expected that his clientele would pretty much stay the same in terms of diversity – very white, but his location and his identity actually made way for another type of customer.

Victor: Just like my mom was always into plants. Pretty much everybody else's mom – I would say like, you know, other Mexican moms, other Latin moms are also into plants. So I started to get a lot of, you know, like a lot of brown clientele in my shop because I was next to the Mexican restaurant. And all of a sudden, you know, I'm like – like I joked I'm selling to everybody's abuelita. And it was, it was super, super important to me to not be disingenuous to that, to basically our community as well. Because I unofficially became like the, the plant plug for, for the brown community here.

Someone would come in from the Mexican restaurant next door and they're like, “oh, I want to get some plants.” But there's always – I feel like from talking to, to some of those people – there's always been, like, a hesitancy on their part to go get plants at plant shops. If their English isn't good. Or if they're not sure – like really what they want. Because we, I still get a lot of, this-is-my-first-plant type of, you know, mom and grandma.

Victor: Yeah. I feel like they didn't really feel like super, super comfortable going there. So all of a sudden I have them coming into the shop. I feel like I could see my mom. And I was just thinking, like, oh, what would it be like for my mom to go into a plant shop? And like, maybe not feel, like, super comfortable or not feel like she could ask a bunch of questions and all of a sudden, now I'm here and I'm sort of providing that service. And yeah. It just, it made me feel like a part of this, of this community that when I was younger, I wasn't really connected to other than through my parents. So my mom and my dad – those were the only brown people, really in my life. And all of a sudden I have all these other people. Right. So I have everybody's abuelita and it makes me feel better. It makes me feel like not only is my business like a successful business, but it makes me feel like I'm giving back to an underserved community. Right. Because yeah. Like I said, through talking to them, they, they want it. Right. So they want plants.

May: There's a demand. It's just a question of access.

Victor: Access to them. And they're – the access is there. But I feel like the comfort is maybe not always there.

A couple of years into opening the plant room, things were going pretty well. Victor had loyal customers, a successful business – so much so that eventually he was able to move into a bigger space. He could have gone almost anywhere that he liked. So he closed down his original location and chose a spot, just a few blocks away, still on Federal Boulevard.

Your first one, you know, you chose your first location out of convenience, price, availability, all this stuff.

May: But the second one you chose for other reasons.

Victor: It was just important. Right. So the first location on 23rd was next to a Mexican restaurant right, a taquerìa. So I not only had developed like a very devoted clientele, you know, predominantly white clientele. So it was important to stay there because of that. Right. It felt disingenuous on my part to all of a sudden pick up the Plant Room now that I can be choosy or move it somewhere else.

May: As we said in the beginning of this conversation, you didn't feel super, super in part of your culture until you got older, now. So how has that changed how you see yourself?

Victor: I mean, now I think that's really the main way now. I feel like a Mexican American man versus just feeling like a part-time Mexican and that part-time white, wannabe guy. Like I am the Plant Papi. The Foliage Father to some, but the Plant Papi, to another bunch of people. Yeah. And it has been the way in which I have felt like a Mexican American man. So I'm super, super proud for, for many reasons. But that is something that I am very like, it does make me feel warm and fuzzy inside that [laughter] that I am a place where like people can come and like, feel totally welcomed. If you don't speak English, doesn't matter. I got you. Like whatever we have to do, we'll, we'll make it happen.

May: And Victor isn't the only one who's proud of all he's done.

Victor: My parents are ecstatic. My dad always tells pretty much anybody that will listen, you know, that I sell plants. Same with my mom. I was very fortunate to do a TV interview, like a month or two back.

May: That's right. I remember seeing…

Victor: Yeah, both my parents – I'm sitting at home and both my parents – I get two separate text messages. They had both recorded it with their phones [laughter] and both had texted me the little video and were just like, we're just so proud of you.

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¿Quién Are We? is a podcast from Colorado Public Radio exploring what it means to be Latino, Hispanic or Chicana ... or however you identify. Host and journalist May Ortega shares stories about our wide-ranging identities and the beautiful things that make us who we are.

¿Quién Are We?

Denver entrepreneur Victor Sosa never knew his interest in houseplants would help him build community and connect to his Latinx roots.

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