It\u2019s mid-November, a full week before Thanksgiving, and the progeny of Francisco Robles, a Mexican immigrant who peddled watermelons in East L.A., have converged in West Covina to commemorate the 76th year of the family\u2019s seasonal business: selling fresh Christmas trees around L.A. from the forests of the Pacific Northwest. <\/p>\n
Francisco and his wife, Lucia, left Mexico for a better life in the early 1900s, so it\u2019s hard to imagine what they would make of their thoroughly Americanized descendants today. One of them is looking for a place to plug in her electric car, another is zipping around the large lot on a motorized scooter, and a third is carrying a large, elaborately framed photo of their mother, \u201cthe Queen of our hearts,\u201d who died on Mother\u2019s Day, so she can be part of the family photo commemorating the 2025 tree season.<\/p>\n
The Robles\u2019 76-year-old grandson Louis Jr. is keeping track of today\u2019s Christmas tree delivery from a folding chair, wearing horn-rim glasses, slacks and a white, open-neck dress shirt. But most of his family \u2014 his three adult children, their spouses and a few of his grandchildren \u2014 are casually dressed in red \u201cRobles Christmas Trees\u201d-themed sweatshirts or holiday leggings, laughing and posing for cellphone photos under a huge red-and-white striped tent in the parking lot of the bustling Plaza West Covina mall. <\/p>\n
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Louis Robles Jr., 76, right, listens as his children go over an inventory list of Christmas trees delivered to his son Gabriel Robles\u2019 lot at Plaza West Covina on Nov. 19. Gabriel stands at his father\u2019s left, beside his wife Kathy Robles. His sister, Lorraine Robles-Acosta, far left, looks over paperwork about the trees that will next be delivered to her lot in Montebello. <\/p>\n
All the pumpkin patch trimmings from October have been put away \u2014 the petting zoo, towering inflatable slides, Cyglos<\/a> and other rides \u2014 and now the family is setting up Christmas decor and stands for the trees that will soon be delivered.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a far cry from the dusty streets where Francisco Robles sold his watermelons from a truck more than a century ago. By the end of this day, the massive 53-foot-truck will have delivered its icy bundles of Nordmann, noble and silvertip firs \u2014 what Louis Jr. calls \u201cthe Cadillac of Christmas trees\u201d \u2014 to all three of their lots in Eagle Rock<\/a>, Plaza West Covina<\/a> and the Montebello mall<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Robles family is eager to get the Christmas tree lots going. Sales were slower than usual at their pumpkin patches this year, a slump they blame on ICE raid concerns by their large Latino customer base. <\/p>\n Antonio Villatoro, left, closes a hatch after moving trees, while Javier Vasquez, looks on at Robles Christmas Trees run by Gabriel Robles at Plaza West Covina.<\/p>\n The Robles family adds festive decor and places for photos to their Christmas tree lots such as this wall at Gabriel Robles\u2019 business at Plaza West Covina.<\/p>\n Members of the Robles family talk carefully about ICE and immigration. They are business people and deeply religious \u2014 Louis Jr. is an assistant pastor at the Living Word Apostalic Church in El Monte<\/a>, where they attended as a family for years \u2014 and they want to keep their politics private. <\/p>\n \u201cBut we are not fearful,\u201d said Gabriel Robles. \u201cWe\u2019ve lived here all our lives, born and raised here, and we\u2019ve been through so much. I believe this ICE issue is another moment in time. It will pass like COVID happened and passed, and we can stand whatever they throw at us. Los Angeles is a melting pot of immigrants. We\u2019re all unified together, no matter who is in office, and you can\u2019t get rid of us. We are the fabric of L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting the family together in mid-November is unusual because, from October through December, the Robleses are juggling the family business with their other jobs: Gabriel Robles, operator of the Robles Pumpkin Festival and Christmas Trees<\/a> in West Covina, is an insurance broker; his wife, Kathy, is a homemaker who manages their books. Gabriel\u2019s older sister, Lisa Nassar, operator of Cougar Mountain Pumpkin and Christmas Trees<\/a> in Eagle Rock, does security screenings at Disneyland (\u201cI keep Tinker Bell safe,\u201d she says, laughing). Her husband, Sam Nassar, is a counselor at Mt. San Antonio College. Lorraine Robles-Acosta is a massage therapist who does lots of work for her church; her husband, Joseph Acosta, is a drug and alcohol counselor. Together, they run the Robles Pumpkin Patch and Christmas Tree Farm<\/a> in Montebello. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a grueling schedule, but they cling to Louis Jr.\u2019s motto \u2014 \u201cWe\u2019ll sleep in January\u201d \u2014 because this business is in their blood. Not all of the younger generation of Robleses is as gung-ho about the family business as their parents are. But Gabriel and Kathy\u2019s sons, Roman, 21, and Mason, 19, are already devising plans to improve the family\u2019s presence on social media, and the couple\u2019s art-loving daughter Loren, 15, set up the acrylic paints for pumpkin painting.<\/p>\n The Robles family\u2019s late matriarch, Madalene Robles, smiles from a portrait held by her husband, Louis Jr., so she can be part of the family photos commemorating the start of the 2025 Christmas tree season on Nov. 19 at their son, Gabriel Robles\u2019 lot in West Covina. Madalene Robles died on her birthday, May 11, which also happened to be Mother\u2019s Day, her favorite holiday.<\/p>\n Louis Jr.\u2019s children, Lisa, Stephen, Gabriel and Lorraine, played among the trees in their father\u2019s tree lots, first in Monrovia in 1973, Louis Jr. says, then in Rosemead and Pico Rivera. Louis Jr. purchased a small trailer with a tiny space heater to sit on the lot so the kids could eat and rest there while he and his wife sold trees.<\/p>\n \u201cThat trailer was so cold at night,\u201d said Lisa, shivering with the memory. <\/p>\n In those early years, when Louis Jr. worked all day at a produce warehouse with his dad before spending his evenings at his Christmas tree lot, he and Madalene used the tree money to create magical Christmases for their children.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember waking up to mountains of presents under the Robles\u2019 tree,\u201d Lorraine said dreamily, \u201cand Mom wrapped every single gift.\u201d <\/p>\n When they were older, Lorraine and her siblings helped set up and sell the trees. They\u2019d chase after the few scalawags who tried to steal them and ultimately they lobbied Louis Jr. to let them have their own lots, which over time expanded from selling a few pumpkins on straw before Halloween to big pumpkin patch extravaganzas with petting zoos, art activities, inflatables and rides. (Stephen, who lives in San Diego, stepped away from the seasonal business.)<\/p>\n The Robles family considers silvertip firs, with their sturdy open branches and graceful form, to be the Cadillac of Christmas trees, said Gabriel Robles. They used to be plentiful, but they\u2019re harder to find these days, he said, because they require altitude and cold to thrive. <\/p>\n Inflatables like bouncy houses and giant slides were Gabriel\u2019s innovation, and so popular he insisted on adding them to his Christmas tree lot too. His dad warned against the idea, but Gabriel said he was determined. He set them up at his lot and they did well for a few days. But then it rained, and his father\u2019s logic became apparent. The inflatables never dried, Gabriel said, and the cold and mud made them even less appealing to visitors. \u201cI still have customers to this day who say, \u2018Please put the inflatables out again,\u2019 but they don\u2019t understand they take forever to dry.\u201d <\/p>\n The Robles family is dismissive about big-box competitors (\u201cThey\u2019ll never replace the tradition and environment you get at our lots,\u201d said Lisa) and they collectively hiss at the mention of artificial trees. <\/p>\n \u201cMy dad has been worried that artificial trees get nicer and nicer, but it hasn\u2019t really changed our sales,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201cThe No. 1 reason people come to our lots is the fragrance. They want that fresh pine smell throughout their home, and fake sprays don\u2019t cut it.\u201d<\/p>\n Worker Jonathan Tovar, foreground, who helps with general operations, and Roman Robles, 21, background, whose father Gabriel Robles runs the lot, arrange trees while inventory is being unloaded. <\/p>\n The Robles family hand-select their trees every year from the farms in the Pacific Northwest. (The names of the farms are secret to keep competitors away, Gabriel said.) After the trees are delivered, the family sprays the trees with water every night and keep them shaded from the sun so they don\u2019t dry out. \u201cThat\u2019s the secret of our success,\u201d Gabriel said.<\/p>\n Louis Jr. said the biggest part of his family\u2019s success has been adding fresh ideas to expand the business that come from each passing generation, starting with his dad, Louis.<\/p>\n Francisco and Lucia Robles and their five L.A.-born children lived on Brooklyn Avenue in East L.A. All three of their sons went to war for the United States, and two never came home, one lost in World War II and the other in the Korean War. Their third son, Louis Robles, served in WWII, right out of high school. He entered the Army\u2019s 101st Airborne Division and earned a Purple Heart as one of the paratroopers who, at age 20, dropped into German-occupied France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.<\/p>\n Paratrooper and produce wholesaler Louis Robles Sr. supplemented his income in 1949 by selling Christmas trees in L.A. In this family photo from 1955, Robles, then 31, pauses by his Robles Produce truck preparing to drive a load of fir trees from snowy Washington to his lot in Lincoln Heights. The boy at left is unindentified. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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