Brian de Peña: from employee at Dominican hotel to Mayor of Lawrence, USA

Brian A. de Peña never imagined, at the beginning of the ’80s, when he was in charge of the Costs Department of the Hotel Caribeño in Santo Domingo, that he would occupy the position of mayor of one of the most important metropolises in the United States: Lawrence, Massachusetts.

With a smile that identifies him to the core, Brian told HOY that what has been part of his life since childhood was developed amid precariousness but with very responsible parents, as described by Mr. Isidoro de Peña and Mr. Ramona Páez. He was born on September 25, 1964, and has three brothers: Bonaventure, Henry, and Caesar.

At 17, he emigrated to Bonao to study his high school cycle at the Seventh-day Adventist School. Then, he went to Santo Domingo to the house of his uncle Casimiro de Peña, who welcomed him as a son.

After informal jobs, he managed to get one at the Hotel Caribeño, which, he says, was one of his first experiences in the workplace. From there, he began his training in what today has consecrated him as a prosperous businessman.

At the beginning of the ’80s, when his country was going through a complex political transition, Brian, at the insistence of one of his brothers, decided to look for other types of opportunities. On a fragile yola, he went to Puerto Rico, where he worked on coffee farms, blacksmith shops, and others. Not long after, he decides to go to New York, where, with his papers up to date, he is already welcomed by his aunt, Mrs. Isidora de Peña. There, he worked for 13 years in the construction and maintenance of buildings.

“New York for me was a transit city, where I left was for Massachusetts, where I had some cousins who were waiting for me. However, an aunt who was the one who gave me the ticket, told me to come to her house,” he said.

His definitive move to Lawrence

He arrived in Lawrence in the early ’90s. After exploring the city and looking for alternatives to invest his small capital, he started his first business, a hardware store called “Ferretería Brian,” at 332 Broadway.

Not long after, and with some savings to pay off other debts incurred to increase the productivity of the business, he decided to expand it and acquired an adjoining building, where, among other things, he also sought to have a little more profitability, in a type of business in which he says he trusted from the first moment and which he called “Gomera Tenares.” in partnership with Wilson Santana, from Tenaren, who not long after decided to end the partnership and go to his Tenares. He then set up four more businesses in various branches.