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Lawn-Care Entrepreneur Faces A Changing Racial Landscape
Nikita Floyd, left, owner of Green Forever, explains a client's sidewalk preferences to foreman Santos Medrano, center, so he can translate the instructions for Juan Salvador.
(By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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"Good job cutting the grama," he would say, mispronouncing a Spanish word for grass.
In 1995, he hired Santos Medrano, who fled San Miguel, El Salvador, for the United States after being forced into the national army during a brutal civil war. Medrano entered the United States illegally in 1989 but applied for asylum and later received a green card. He had only two years of formal education, but on a maintenance job at a car dealership, a Cuban taught him English.
After Medrano's cousin referred him to Floyd, Medrano was immediately made head foreman because he was the only fluent English speaker in the crew. He now has a company pickup truck, a work cellphone and pay of about $20 an hour.
An easygoing 36-year-old with wavy hair, Medrano spends his days driving to the sites where Green Forever employees are working or picking up plants and foliage, encountering other immigrants as he makes his rounds.
"That's what we're here for, to work and pay for everything," he said with a laugh.
In 1998, he left Floyd for a year to launch a landscaping business, which flopped because he did not have the capital to compete with well-heeled companies.
Medrano has since become an essential part of Green Forever, Floyd says. On a recent Friday, he was stricken with flu, and Floyd worked a 14-hour day to pick up his duties, phoning Medrano at home to ask him to call another foreman and translate instructions.
"Walter didn't know he was supposed to meet me on Hill Road. Make sure he's clear to do that," Floyd told Medrano, who ended up leaving his sick bed for a few hours to get all the work crews in place.
"Sometimes when he's not there," Floyd said later, "guys just start having a little bit of confusion."
While Medrano managed the workers, Floyd taught himself more about the craft of landscaping and expanded the company. In Prince George's, Floyd began to win bids in the tens of thousands of dollars for upscale landscaping in Woodmore, a gated community of half-million-dollar and up homes.
Floyd bought a 12-acre farm in Upper Marlboro and grew wealthy. He has time to focus on other interests, including a pilot script he is writing for a home-and-garden sitcom he hopes to pitch to television networks.
This year, he plans to step back even further from the day-to-day operations of Green Forever and hire a salaried operations manager.
The job won't go to Santos Medrano, Floyd's right-hand man.
"Santos can't do it," Floyd said recently, citing his head foreman's lack of education. "Maybe his son could."
Medrano has accepted that. His hope is in his 6-year-old son, who wants to be a pilot, or Superman.
"He speaks English better than Spanish," Medrano said with pride.
Floyd said he'll pick "the best person" for the job. "I would love to hire an African American. Someone who would stick by me and just want to work."
