Victoria Flores: 4 Generations living under one roof a lesson learned

Victoria Flores, co-founder, LuxBeautyClub.com tells her Coronavirus Story

Coronavirus stories is a series of testimonials from Latina entrepreneurs on how the pandemic have changed their personal and business lives. 

I am a first-generation Mexican-American daughter of immigrants. Both of my parents were born in Mexico and eventually naturalized in Texas. I have been the first to hit many milestones in my family and life. I was the first to go to college, I was the first to go to grad school, I was the first in my family to enter the world of finance, I was even one of the first Latinas in my group at a Wall Street bank.

Through the years as I built my career in Dallas then New York City, every time I would visit home I could see my madre and abuela just getting older. I often thought that someday we would all be together under one roof. It’s what we do in Latino families. We don’t send our aging to nursing homes, we figure out a way to care for and support them no matter what.

After I married and we had our daughter, Alejandra, it became a top priority for both sets of grandparents to see her as often as possible, especially since we were only having one child in the madness and expense that is New York City.

When our daughter turned 4, we knew it was time to start looking into a second home to have outside of the city. My Canadian husband was raised on a farm so he had a love/hate relationship with the city… mostly hate.

We finally found our dream house in Connecticut, close enough to the city to work there but far enough to destress and breathe in the fresh country air to let my husband’s OCD run wild. One day, out of the blue, my husband turned to me and asked, “Why don’t your mom and grandma move here? Then Alejandra can see them every weekend. They won’t be around forever.” I was stunned, I hadn’t even thought of that, because I never thought he would go for it.

But Connecticut is cold and El Paso is scorching hot, the two places seem diametrically opposed (and not just their temperatures), would they go for it?

Well, it didn’t take much convincing, as soon as I mentioned it, she cried out, “Le rece todas las noches a Dios, mi’ja.” I wish I could say it went smoothly, without any hiccups, but it was definitely a process to get everyone on the same page given we only saw each other on the weekends.

Then… Coronavirus happened. As we packed the car and headed to Connecticut to what would be our last day in the city, March 9th, I thought, this is going to be an unmitigated disaster. Four strong Latinas and one white boy. What could possibly go wrong, right?

Well, nothing went wrong.

I think the somber reality of what the country and world are going through caused us to truly sit and count our blessings. Sweating the small stuff was not on the agenda. For the first time, I prayed with my mom and grandma. We prayed for the sick, we prayed for the workers, we prayed for our friends, we prayed for our family, we prayed for our cities, we prayed for those that lost loved ones. We sat and prayed.

Being together at this time has made us grateful to have one another and we are all working together so our household runs smoothly. We eat every meal together, we cook together, we try new recipes, we remind Alejandra about her class zoom calls.

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You realize how much you actually don’t need and what is truly important to survive. When I hear my daughter’s laughter as she watches Moana with the grandmas, I feel fortunate that they won’t be missing out on her childhood. My heart melts when she translates my grandma’s Spanish for my husband.

Having four generations living full-time under one roof has put everything into perspective. Every day, we are reminded that we need to breathe and slow down. Yes, sometimes we still have to be reminded of what doesn’t belong in the recycling bin and what does. No, that’s not a metaphor. I mean that literally, my husband reminds us every day. Some things will never change.

Victoria Flores and her partner started LuxBeautyClub, a hair extension business, and saw the potential in marketing it to women like them. Now, Lux Beauty Club also creates high-end CBD products that are made in the USA with clean ingredients. With the existing customer base from her hair extension business, Victoria was able to make a seamless pivot into selling CBD beauty products and tinctures formulated to support sleep, fight anxiety, and enhance overall well-being—and she found an audience that wasn’t being served by existing CBD products that were already on the market.