Business Owner from Colombia
Oil on canvas 40” x 30”

The fifteenth child in his family in Bogota, Colombia, Diego Salazar came to the U.S. encouraged by his mother, who sold traditional home-cooked snacks and raised and sold chickens and eggs in order to make ends meet. With only a high school degree and his plane ticket, Diego arrived in New York City and got a job as an apprentice in a shop that made reproductions of antique picture frames. He worked hard and sent $15 a month home for many months to pay for the ticket. After a few years, he opened a small business out of his home. It soon needed rented space and more. He bought a building in Brooklyn that became his factory where more than thirty employees made replicas of antiques that are prized by galleries, collectors and museums. Years later he turned the factory into residential lofts and now owns three buildings, collects antique picture frames, and is living he American Dream.