Latino Businessman Living the American Dream
Jimenez working to help Latinos become business owners
Feburary 26, 2002

In February of 1981, an undefeated 17-year-old boxing champ from the Dominican Republic slipped over the Canadian border into New York State with dreams of winning the heavyweight championship. He was headed for a garage in the Bronx where a job awaited him.

Meet Rafael Jimenez, Owner of Lynn Motors and a Lynn man living the American dream. Jimenez shakes his head when he recounts the events of his life, as if the telling can offer some explanation for his incredibly good fortune. "I'm not a good business man. I'm a lucky man," he said.

Jimenez is president of the Latino Business Association (LBA), an organization that nurtures Latino business owners and Latinos seeking to become business owners. "I can speak for Latinos because I know what they want. It took me 20 yeas to get here.

If people get support they can do it in five," he said.
The LBA's mission is to work in conjunction with the city agencies to make it easier for Latinos to open and run businesses. "Latinos don't know the door they have to knock on. They need to know which door is the right one and where they can find it," Jimenez said.

Jimenez was born on his father's farm in Higuey, a tiny village on the eastern side of the Dominican Republic. The village lacked a school so he rode his family donkey, Daniel, six miles to school. He quit school after third grade to work on his family's farm, and considers those three years some of the best in his life.
At 17 Jimenez won the Dominican Republic's Golden Gloves Championship with a record of 22-0 with 21 knockouts. With boxing gloves not available. Jimenez used towels bound around his hands.

After entering the U.S. and taking a job at his uncle's gas station in the Bronx, Jimenez began trainings in local gym and caught the eye of heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney, who was so impressed with the Dominican boxer's fire that he insisted Jimenez train exclusively with him. In 1983, Jimenez broke both hands and his dream of professional boxing died, but his two years at the gas station had evoked some alternate dreams.

Jimenez worked for his uncle for seven years before he moved to Miami and worked as an electrician in South Beach. After two years, his thoughts returned to cars. He had a good friend in Massachusetts who told him cars were available cheap at auctions, so he came here in 1989 to take a look.

He and his friend Chic bought a 1981 Dodge Diplomat for $700. Jimenez removed the plate from his car, slapped into the Dodge and drove to Miami. He parked the car in front of his house, taped a "For Sale" sign into the back window and had the car sold for $1,900 by 10 a.m. the next day.

Jimenez came back to Massachusetts to buy two more cars which he sold for a 50 percent profit. He calculated that he had enough cash to buy 10 cars at auction, quickly made plans to rent office space and a lot large enough to hold his cars and returned to Massachusetts to buy inventory to fill his new lot.

While Jimenez was waiting for a ride one day over a Chelsea restaurant, the owner told him he wanted to return to Puerto Rico. Jimenez agreed to buy that business for $20,000--$10,000 down and the balance payable in six months. Jimenez handed over the money he had intended to use to buy cars and moved to Chelsea. In addition to running the restaurant he continued to buy and sell used cars. A year after purchasing the restaurant, he sold it for almost five times what he paid for it.

Jimenez then bought a garage and developed a relationship with Easy Way Auto Exchange, a used card dealership for which he repaired cars. He bought Easy Way Auto Exchange in 1991, 10 years after crossing the Canadian border. When he renamed the business Lynn Motors, he "was the happiest man in the whole world because I was finally doing what I wanted," he said.

Over the next 10 years Jimenez bought three more property on the Lynnway, all adjacent to the original business located at 315 Lynnway. Lynn Motors is a sprawling used car lot and boasts a booming business.

EDIC/Lynn Executive Director Peter DeVeau said the Jimenez story is not only amazing from a human interest perspective, but also in the fact that entrepreneurship continues to thrive in the city for individuals from a variety of cultural and backgrounds.
"I remember meeting George Koukounaris of Naris Realty 40 years ago when He first came to Lynn, and their stories are not dissimilar," DeVeau said. "Rafael brings not only experience and leadership to the LBA but also the knowledge that the success of small business in most instances falls upon the hard work of the individual. The EDIC and the Lynn Small Business Assistance Center look forward to many years of collaboration and assistance."

Jimenez hopes to use his experience to help other Latinos. "I come from being nobody, and I've sat next to mayors, state representatives and even Senator (John) Kerry. When I'm home at night, sometimes I do this to see if my life is real," he said, pinching his arm.