Clara the Fruit Lady Brings Freshness to EDC Vegas

While you’re frolicking at EDC Vegas, you may reach a point in the night when you’re tempted to indulge in a light snack or two. Don’t fret. Clara’s Fruits has something sweet just for you, and it’s not just the delicious and nutritious smoothies being served. Clara Gonzalez, the proprietor and heart and soul of the booth, is a perfect complement to the uplifting vibes flowing throughout the Carnival.

Fruit distribution is Clara’s forte. As the head of a fresh fruit, juice and smoothie operation, she wakes up at 4am every day to prep the goods for a daily route she has maintained over the last six years. After she handpicks a day’s worth of assorted fruits and vegetables at her local wholesale marketplace, she puts her Vitamix machine through two power hours of juicing. The finished product is then delivered to schools, hospitals, and the rest of her clientele in the Downtown and East L.A. areas. With upwards of 20 years experience, she will always remain deeply rooted in handling produce.

Clara’s strength and work ethic were honed on a farm. Her parents and their 11 children immigrated to the States from Guadalajara, Mexico, when she was two years old. “My dad had a pickup truck, (and) the truck had a camper. They would wake up at four in the morning to go to work. We were too little, so we would stay in the camper sleeping,” she says. At age four, she started picking apples, grapes, peaches, prunes and strawberries alongside her family. They bounced around California, Idaho, and Oregon for the next seven years, based on the alternating fruit seasons. When she was 11, a farmer made Clara the manager of a fruit stand in a small town in Idaho.

“These festivals are all about peace and love. I like it.”

Her field of work eventually yielded an opportunity to become a part of the Insomniac family. While manning her own fruit cart in L.A.’s Warehouse District, Clara was offered a position as a food and beverage vendor at Beyond Wonderland in 2011. She was allotted 400 square feet to set up shop and sell chopped fruit. She eventually upgraded her display and added four smoothie options to her menu, including strawberry-banana, tropical mango, mixed berries and mixed fruit. Her customers could not get their fill of her mouth-watering concoctions. Since then, Clara’s Fruits has become a Headliner favorite. Her booths require up to a pallet of produce, 10 team members, and 22 consecutive hours of work in a single day; but in the end, it’s all worth it for Clara.

A few of her regulars have opened her up to the concept of PLUR. She confesses, “I have the beads they gave me. I have a little collection saved up. These festivals are all about peace and love. I like it.” Roughly 40 or so pieces of kandi connect her to the familiar faces she has encountered. She asked four of her nieces to get together to make bracelets that read “Clara’s Fruits” so she can distribute them to her customers. It’s her way of reciprocating the love she has received at Insomniac festivals.

Clara’s dedication to nutrition stretches far beyond her homegrown fruit operation. She has approached schools in her neighborhood to encourage them to implement a balanced diet for their students, and in the next few months, she will be opening a new store aimed at providing healthier dessert options for her neighborhood. At EDC Vegas, Clara is excited to introduce a new “green smoothie” consisting of spinach, celery, cucumber, pineapple and orange juice. Try it out if you stop by her booth, and make sure to trade some kandi with Clara and her crew.