Family Business
It’s Friday night and downtown is dead.
The only sign of life comes from Garcia Mortuary, where crowds gather, bringing a rare vitality to the moribund heart of the city.
Somber groups of mourners fill the dimly lighted streets that lead to Garcia’s, a downtown fixture since 1978 and the first Latino-owned mortuary in Ventura County. For nearly two decades, generations of families have come here to bury their loved ones, making Garcia’s a mortuary with a following.
In an otherwise economically depressed downtown, amid “for lease” signs and padlocked doors, Garcia Mortuary thrives. The mortuary even attracts some businesses--like the flower shop across the street--hoping to benefit from Garcia’s clientele. Even the Hollywood Club gets some residual business as people stop for a beer or a game of pool after a viewing or a long rosary.
Founder and owner Roberto Garcia has seen his business grow about 10% annually since he founded the funeral home. Of the 16 mortuaries in Ventura County, Garcia’s is one of the few that is still family-owned. And this has been the mortuary’s busiest year--with 250 bodies buried or cremated.
Oxnard’s recent rash of homicides accounted for much of the increase, with more than half of his clients under the age of 45. An aging population in a densely populated area has also contributed to the business boom.
*
The son of a Mexican farm worker, Garcia understood the need for a Spanish-speaking, community-based mortuary to serve the large Latino population in Oxnard and surrounding communities such as Santa Paula. Almost daily, Garcia ships bodies back to Mexico for burial.
What began as a business with just one rented hearse, a tiny office and about two bodies a week has become a million-dollar firm with several hearses for an average of two bodies a day. Garcia is investing more than $100,000 in renovations and expansion, which he hopes to complete before the funeral home’s 20th anniversary in 1998.
Despite several obstacles--including the city of Oxnard’s attempt to buy him out to create a parking lot--Garcia has made the mortuary what he envisioned as a young man.
While the profits are nice, Garcia says the most fulfilling part of his job is helping families establish a sense of closure. With each death, Garcia becomes part priest, counselor, embalmer and administrator.
“This is just the beginning of something bigger,” Garcia said. “Progress has been noticeable for the last five years because of my family’s 100% support of the business. If we can continue as a family, we can continue with that service that people like.”
Indeed, running the mortuary is a family affair.
Martha, Roberto’s wife, is the hairstylist. Jesse, 27, the eldest child, is the mortician in training. Robert Jr., 26, counsels and advises families on the funeral and embalming process. Lorena, 25, is in college studying to be a mortician. The two youngest children, Tomas, 17, and Reyna, 13, help out where they are needed.
The shyest of the Garcia siblings, Jesse Garcia is composed and meticulous when embalming the bodies that come to the cold and sterilized back room. Although he has yet to receive his mortician’s degree, Jesse Garcia often embalms the bodies himself--with a certified mortician on hand to supervise.
He has seen some awful sights--train wrecks and decomposed bodies are the worst, he said.
But his customers expect the best. That means embalming the body to preserve it as long as possible because some clients like to bring their loved ones home for viewing in their living rooms.
Jesse Garcia also applies the makeup and last-minute touches on bodies, dabbing glow tint on the face, spraying cologne or perfume for a pleasant scent and adjusting their ties or silk bows.
He puts in 13-hour days and says he loves it.
“People come to us because they need our help,” he said.
*
Robert Jr., unlike his brother, is talkative and outgoing.
He began working at the mortuary three years ago, after receiving a business degree from Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. The former Marine exudes warmth, readily offering a soft handshake and a comforting word to grieving relatives. His genial manner is helpful when asking practical questions such as: Burial or cremation? Casket or urn? Check or credit? Cemetery or ocean?
Death is difficult for relatives, and raw emotion often can overwhelm reason.
He has dealt with grieving mothers who had more than one child killed by gang violence. Sometimes he finds himself caught in the middle, among bitter or angry family members blaming each other for the death. Other times he is cautiously trying to reach people who have suppressed all emotion and have been silenced by their grief.
Recently, Robert Jr. dealt with the family of a young mother who died, leaving two children. She died in the midst of a messy divorce, and her family deeply resented her husband. Robert sat down with each family member and gently coaxed them into a truce for the children’s sake.
He told the father to put his pride aside and do as his children wished, even if they asked him to stay away from the funeral. Then he went to the woman’s family and explained that the children’s father should be involved, even if it was painful to them.
The children finally decided they wanted their father to be included, despite their anger and resentment.
The funeral service went off smoothly and the father even paid for it.
“There is a lot to this business,” said Robert Jr. “It’s a very interesting and rewarding business. We are a family and we truly enjoy assisting families, especially when they say we have eased a certain pain or made it a lot easier.”
Roberto Garcia constantly reminds his children that personalized attention is vital.
“It’s a business, but to me it is a little special because you are dealing with people’s feelings,” Garcia said. “You need to be able to give people straight answers.”
*
As a kid, Roberto Garcia knew he had a knack for healing and caring for the injured. His father, Jose Carmen Garcia, thought his son would become a doctor. He always told his son to branch out on his own because that was the only way to achieve financial independence in America.
“I always told him, ‘You’ll never make anything working for someone else,’ ” said Jose Garcia, 74, who immigrated to Oxnard with his family in the 1950s.
After marrying Martha, his high school sweetheart, Roberto Garcia did a stint in the Army before dabbling in an array of jobs, from selling cars to cutting hair. But he hadn’t found a job he loved.
It wasn’t until he began to sell cemetery plots that he realized his destiny. He would establish a mortuary that could cater to a growing Latino community.
“Every time he went to see a family, they would tell him, ‘I can’t believe there aren’t any bilingual people in the mortuary business,’ ” said Martha Garcia.
Garcia then asked his wife how she would feel if he became a mortician.
“I told him that was fine as long as I didn’t have anything to do with it,” said Martha, laughing as she thinks of how involved she is with the business now.
“When you’re not used to it, it’s a very hard thing to accept,” said Martha. “Not everyone is going to comb a person’s hair who is dead.”
For Martha, the first hint of how serious he was came when he bought the family car--a hearse.
With its roomy interior, the hearse was a blessing for the large family, Martha recalled, smiling at the memory. She drove it to her job at a beauty salon and to pick up the kids.
“To me, by then, it was normal,” Martha said. “I would take the kids with me. I would drop them off at school. It was like a minivan.”
Soon after buying the hearse, Roberto Garcia founded his business. But within a few years, the Garcias faced some obstacles from an unlikely source--the city of Oxnard.
*
In the early 1980s, with redevelopment at its height, the city wanted to buy Garcia’s property and convert it to a parking lot.
Unmoved by the city’s financial offers and promises of relocation, Roberto faced off with the City Council at several meetings.
Current Mayor Manuel Lopez, then a city councilman, remembers the struggle well. “The city favored having the huge investors come in rather than nurturing the little people. They almost aced Garcia out,” he said.
“I supported Garcia Mortuary,” he said, noting that the mortuary is one of the few successful businesses downtown. “They have a game plan and they have followed it. They have done very well and they are a perfect example of free enterprise.”
Part of their success comes from catering to the Latino population, having flexibility with payments and understanding certain cultural traditions.
The average cost of burying a loved one, including the cemetery, casket and funeral service, ranges from $3,000 to $5,000.
The mortuary stocks caskets with the insignia of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the most worshiped saint among Mexicans. Though the caskets cost about $2,200, they are the most popular among Latino clients.
“We like to feel that a family has dignity,” Roberto said. “Some of the poor people like the farm laborers get together, they buy the nice caskets and make a big sacrifice. But they carry on with the responsibility and they pay for it.”
Garcia Mortuary is one of few in the county that regularly arranges for bodies to be flown back to Mexico for burial. Roberto estimates that about 30% of his clients request that service.
“They help us and they give us extensions on payments that other mortuaries don’t,” said Carlos G. Alonzo, whose father-in-law was recently flown to Mexico for burial. “We don’t have that with the Anglo mortuaries. The Garcia family has served Latin Americans and Mexicans well.”
*
The Garcias are at ease with the irony of their industry: the more death there is, the better their business. They don’t apologize, nor do they boast about it.
By the time their 20-year anniversary rolls around in 1998, Garcia hopes to have three phases of the mortuary expansion completed. By January, he hopes to finish the new chapel and a larger waiting room, along with a garden and children’s play room.
The Garcias would like to see downtown improve around them, but they’re not waiting.
“I’d like to turn this building into something really nice so people can come downtown and see something nice instead of graffiti and empty lots,” said Roberto Garcia. “We are here to stay.”
