FROM A PEACEFUL TOWN IN PORTUGAL TO DANBURY

The life trajectory of businessman and community leader Joe Boa, from the state of Connecticut

Joe Boa’s life and immigration journey crosses three continents. It all begins in a peaceful land in the interior of Portugal, then it extends to the African vastness of the former colony of Angola and it continues in the country of opportunities, the United States of America. Here, he graduated and became a successful businessman who always had a touch of simplicity in his his character.

“My parents came to America when they were reaching middle age (Arthur was 52 and Joaquina 45) and they never learned English”, says Joe Boa, in an exclusive interview granted to the LUSO-AMERICANO newspaper. 

The Boas arrived in America in 1968, Joe was 14 years old; We were in Angola when a family member sent us the letter of request. “My uncle Elísio, married to my aunt Regina, was the first Boa to come to Danbury”, he notes. Behind he left his life experience in Africa, which extended from 1956 to 1967. “We still lived in Portugal for two months before moving to America”.

The Boas brought the two children to Danbury, José (Joe) and Horácio (Ray). Joe was born in Vila Franca do Deão, a parish in the municipality of Guarda, and would eventually graduate high school in Danbury in 1972. He then graduated College with a degree in Business Management at Western Connecticut State University in 1976. However, not everything was as easy as it seems…“The adaptation was very difficult ”, he acknowledges. “We didn’t speak English and we spent our first American summer without any knowledge or friends”.

With the determination that makes great immigrant stories in the land of ‘Uncle Sam’, Joe Boa opened his first company in 1980, four years later after having married Maria Boa – a Lisbon immigrant with roots in Freixo da Serra. He kept Diversified Maintenance Corporation until 2000, until he sold it to One Source Corp. Currently he owns DMC Property Management, which guarantees management of a real estate property on the busy Federal Road of Danbury, comprising of four properties and 48,000 square feet of area for commercial exploitation. “I bought the first building here in 1984 and then we started to build and increase our portfolio”, he says. “I never planned my business around the thought of riches. I have always considered that investing in the real estate sector allowed me to closely monitor the business and that was when we started to invest little by little, as things were provided.

 Here is  a tip for anyone interested: “Risk is important, but I have always been a defender of calculated risk. I never bought anything without knowing if I was able to pay for it in the future ”.

A respected figure in both the business associative sphere and in the American environment, the entrepreneur belongs to the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce and is on the advisory board of the Savings Bank of Danbury. The positive action he creates in these two positions also led him to receive the ‘American Dream Award’ in 2007 by the Greater Danbury Bar Association, and the ‘Good Scout Award’, two years later, by the Connecticut Yankee Council.

The connection to his Portuguese roots started early; at 16 he was already a member of the Portuguese-American Club. “We lived on the same street,” he explains. It was the beginning of a long list of services to the community: he would become president of the Club ‘Filhos de Portugal’ and lead the respective scholarship fund, later moving to a similar position in the fundraising efforts for the fund of the Portuguese Cultural Center – which would arise from the merger of those two groups. He is also part of the Economic Council of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and was crucial in obtaining the 2.5 million mortgage granted by the local banking unit to the Center.

 With the modesty that he is known for, he concludes: “I believe I have contributed positively to the affirmation and growth of the Portuguese community in Danbury, as well as to their integration into the American environment where we now enjoy a very positive image. The Portuguese have a lot of economic weight in this city and are sometimes somewhat underestimated. ”

In retrospect, have your parents taken the right step when crossing the Atlantic? “Decidedly,” retort. “For me there is no country like the United States and I think that only the value of this nation can be appreciated by those who have lived in other parts of the world and therefore have terms of comparison. Despite all its imperfections, I don’t see myself living anywhere else on the globe ”.

Joe Boa seeks to pass along to his daughters and grandchildren the pride he carries in his DNA. The youngest daughter, Paula, completed her schooling at ‘Manuel Cipriano’, worked at the folk ranch and is a lawyer in Danbury. “My family is my greatest joy,” he notes, also referring to his eldest daughter, Cristina, and his Portuguese son-in-law, Jorge Sousa, married to Paula, “who I treat like a son and who has already given me two grandchildren” .

The ultimate connection to his place of origin remains vigorous. When his parents (who returned to Portugal) were alive, “I used to go three times a year. They lived in Freixo da Serra, near Gouveia ”, he adds. “After they passed away, we started to go once a year. Unfortunately, with the pandemic, we were unable to go this year and I don’t even know, now when we can return. ”