The year was 1971 when two young college freshmen at San Jose State University would meet. Evelia Morales and Pedro “Jaime” Rosso didn’t yet know it, but they had found their hearts’ desire, unmistakable partners in life and business.
The two young lovers, each with a different story and background—together would make an immeasurable mark in their community. They own the biggest local premium furniture retailer in the South Valley, with locations in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
Their ads are all over newspapers and TV and they draw shoppers from throughout the Bay Area to their stores which employ 49 people.
Both also do a lot of community service, Jaime as a member of Gilroy’s school board and Evelia with the Gilroy Exchange Club and American Association of University Women.
They are deeply entrenched in the South Valley community and you can hardly go to an event and not see them.
“They are just beautiful people,” says CARAS Board Member Sally Armendariz. “I’ve known him since he used to work at The Owl. He’s been a great leader in the Hispanic community. Whatever families need help, we know that we can count on him. He’s made this community a lot more productive and safe for everyone that lives in it.”
Jaime attended San Jose State and later transferred to Loyola Marymount, where he did a work-study program, “La Causa,” tutoring inner-city youth.
The couple was reacquainted in their senior year after Evelia and her friend sent Jaime a Christmas card in 1975. Jaime wrote back.
“He sent me a love letter letter,” says Evelia.
“She calls it a love letter, that’s fine,” Jaime adds.
They were married within a year.
Evelia, who eventually would earn a Master’s degree in educational leadership, took her first teaching job at Eliot Elementary School in Gilroy. There weren’t yet many bilingual teachers in the area, says Jaime.
Following his wife’s lead, Jaime took a job at The Owl on Eigleberry (also known as the Holloway House) as a prevention services coordinator with South County Alternatives, a predecessor to Community solutions. The organization worked to pair families in need with support resources.
Family
Despite being Puerto Rican, Jaime, who was born in California and was the oldest of 10 children, wasn’t fluent in Spanish. His family—widely successful and highly educated—was immersed in American life and “Spanish wasn’t a priority in Catholic school,” says Jaime.
Evelia, on the other hand, is from the village of Tequixtepec in the lower Mixtec region of Oaxaca, Mexico, and speaks fluent Spanish. The Mixteca culture included a highly developed political and religious structure, rich in agricultural technology, the arts and commerce.
For the first eight years of her life, Evelia didn’t know her father, Rafael Morales, who had gone north as part of the Bracero Program, a migrant labor initiative established in the 1940s. Don Rafael settled in Healdsburg and became a champion of the farmworker movement and a prominent figure in the Spanish-speaking community, co-founding Latinos Unidos of Sonoma County. The non-profit organization would later help the working poor and underserved in the immigrant community, providing sports equipment and uniforms to needy athletes, granting college scholarships and making sure burial provisions were covered for the poor in the community.
Once Don Rafael received his permanent residency card, he petitioned to bring his family over. Evelia shares a rarely captured moment—a framed picture of her and her mother in Mexico City before they came into the United States in the 1950s.
Business
After settling in Gilroy, Jaime and Evelia, looking to buy their first home together, were unable to meet the $40,000 income requirement to qualify for a mortgage.They had to make some changes.
“We had decided to start a business,” says Jaime, who then recalls his dad’s story as a successful entrepreneur in San Bernardino.
“He got into the furniture business by accident. He had just a storefront,” says Jaime.
His dad, also named Jaime, wanting a new sofa for home, had it delivered to his jewelry store, “It couldn’t even go inside the door and so they put it on the curb of the street.”
Customers asked if it was for sale. “And of course for my dad, everything was for sale. So he sold it,” says Jaime. “So he orders another one and it immediately sells again and before you know it he starts ordering like six at a time and then 10 and he kept selling the same sofa over again.”
Jamie says drive-thrus were just catching on and his dad built a glass drive-thru furniture showroom with 24 displays—12 on each side—each room painted a different color for easy ordering.
When Jaime’s parents visited Gilroy, his dad noticed the town had no furniture store—and there was their business idea. “Of course when I left in 1970 I said that’s the last business I ever want, because I knew how hard they worked at it. But he raised 10 kids, who all went to Catholic school, got us to college,” says Jaime. Their first store was in the Super Save shopping center on First Street.
Their earnings in the first month were $30,000, nearly enough to buy their first home on Hanna Street outright.
Within months Jaime and Evelia were joined in partnership by Jaime’s brother, Anthony. Jaime says the business wouldn’t have been possible without Anthony.
Jaime says they’ve certainly had some ups and downs, but they’ve weathered them together.
Jaime says with two locations in Gilroy and Morgan Hill, Rosso’s continues to be the premier by volume sales dealer in the South Valley.
Rosso’s carries top national brands like “La-Z-Boy, Flexsteel, Universal, Better Homes & Gardens as well as [being] the largest area dealer of Ashley products. We have professional, outstanding decorators on staff and have a dedicated professional customer service-focused team,” says Jaime.
Jaime says in order to stay competitive in this business they make the customer experience their number one priority.
“We stand behind our products, offering a one year store warranty against factory defects on purchase of new products regardless of factory warranty,” he says. “And we offer a 30 day price guarantee for any identical products we sell.”
Although they are a brick and mortar store, Jaime says Rosso’s also had to change their marketing approach to compete with online businesses by “utilizing innovative digital marketing strategies to reach customers to demonstrate that we are competitive and can better serve the home furniture needs of our South County community.”
This year the Rossos celebrate their 38th year in business. More than anything, Jaime says the business has allowed the Rossos to do what is really important to them, which is to give back to the community.
Community
After 41 years of marriage, the Rossos have three children, seven grandchildren and an eighth on the way. They are both very actively involved in the community. Jaime says his role model was Evelia’s dad, Don Rafael who inspired many to action. Evelia’s sister, Connie Goubaud, also invested in public education, continues to work in the school district as a speech therapist. Evelia’s brothers, Hugo Morales and Candido Morales, went on to engage in community activism. Hugo is the co-founder of Radio Bilingue, a Latino public radio network broadcasting in both Mexico and the U.S. that works to empower underserved communities. Candido was the director for the Institute of Mexicans Abroad, promoting civic engagement outside of Mexico.
Evelia, now retired, continues to be involved in Gilroy’s educational and civic affairs. “I love that it’s not so big, that is small enough to be able to get to know the community,” says Evelia. She works with the Gilroy Exchange Club and American Association of University Women, which she says has been working since 1881 to empower women as individuals and as a community.
Embracing her history as his own, Jaime says his family would have never thought to do the things that Evelia’s family has done.
“I ran for school board around the same time we started the business,” says Jaime, adding that he was also a founding president of the Gilroy Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
As for some of the obstacles Jaime has faced working with the school board, he says he’s very proud of the 16 years he’s served.
“I feel my biggest contribution on the board is doing my part to support collaborative leadership and support for our educational leadership team that works in the best interests of our students and our community,” he says. Jaime’s also pleased with the role he played in passing bond measures to make facility improvements, which he says are a direct result of “serving on the Facilities Committee that implemented almost $500 Million in major facilities improvements that have impacted every school in our district.”
Jaime says that ever since his days of doing outreach work and tutoring in college he has been motivated to work in the community.
“I felt almost like I could offer so little, but it was so rewarding to do that work. I always stayed connected to the schools,” says Jaime. “As an individual and as a community, the public schools are only as good as the commitment that the community makes to them. If the communities are not working then do something about it.”
And in unison Jaime and Elevia add, “Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
Find Rosso’s Furniture online at rosso.com or at one of their two locations in the South Valley. 6881 Monterey Rd, Gilroy and 212 Tennant Ave, Morgan Hill.
