My name is Pedro Perez, my wife's name is Carmen Perez, and my son's name is Pedrito (little Pedro) Perez. I originally came from the Dominican Republic. From Santiago, I was 14 years old...I was illegal, I came with someone else's papers. When I went through immigration, the guy told me, "these are not your papers� I�m gonna let you slide. But I know and you know that they are not yours."

In those days, there was the gypsy taxis, no license, illegal. At Kennedy airport.

So this guy comes to me, and says, "I�ll take you home, where you live?"

I said, "I don't live nowhere." I have a piece of paper with an address on it.

So he says, "yeah, I know where it is." So he dropped me off in Manhattan, Second Street near Houston. I said, "I won't pay you until I see people that I know. ..." A knock on the door and here comes my aunt so I says, "okay, how much do I owe you?" He says, "you don't owe me nothing." He was a nice guy. I still have his phone number. And we communicate...

When I came to New York...I started working for a hundred and fifty dollars per week. Can you believe that? I saved up some money and bought a small place on Adams and Front. It was a real little business, it was like a $250 a day business. Within two weeks I had it up to a thousand dollars a day business. I see for myself what the neighborhood needs. First of all, you need a clean place. You have to have what the customer wants. Then you have to make the customer feel good about whatever you are doing. So they can come back to you, I mean that's the whole idea. "Hi, how are you, how are you feeling?" Then I sold that business, and bought this one (Front and Jay.)

We open at 5:30 in the morning, and we close about 5:30. It�s a 12 hour day.

Most of my customers originally, are from the factories, lately I have a lot of artists. ... They're good people, it doesn't matter where they come from. They�re honest...nobody steals anything. It's the only place in the whole neighborhood where you do whatever you please, just like at home...

We have Mexican food, Puerto Rican food, Cuban sandwich, roast beef, pastrami--we make everything from scratch... everything is fresh herbs, garlic, whatever it is. ...If we don't have what you�re asking for, we'll prepare it for you. If you want pork chops, okay, five minutes. You want a steak--mignon, we'll cook it for you. We make everybody happy.

I remember in 1984, this neighborhood was so bad, everything was deserted. There was a priest who was killed right here, right in that yard there. ...It was really scary to be down here. It was a matter of surviving, and hoping things got better. Today it's like heaven from hell, today is like heaven.

In the Dominican Republic, every young man has a fantasy...a dream, they think they can make it come true here in the United States. I've been here, since 1970. I've been an American citizen for the past 20 years. I do the best I can to be a better man day by day, I pay my taxes, work hard, I provide for my kid. I believe the main thing about life is, what can you do better for you tomorrow, than what you did today.