Manuel Capo
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Manuel Capo. hfbusiness.com
Manuel Capo, who fled Cuba and the Castro regime in the 1960s, and went on to build Florida's El Dorado Furniture, is remembered as a humble leader, always cheerful and mindful of the strength that comes from close family. Born in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, in 1925, Capo left school in the third grade and began working in his father's furniture shop. In 1966, he and two of his seven sons fled Cuba in a small wooden fishing boat named El Dorado. With a $10,000 loan form the Small Business Administration, Capo and his family opened their first El Dorado store in Miami's Little Havana area in 1967, a business named after the boat that symbolized freedom for the family. EL Dorado is the largest Hispanic-owned furniture store in the United States (Engel).