CONTRACTOR PROFILE
By Gregg Wartgow
From left: Tony Diaz, Rafael Diaz, Delia Diaz, Ruben Diaz Sr., Ruben Diaz Jr., Robert Diaz
Passion Outlasts the Pain
The blood, sweat and tears the Diaz family has poured into its Chicagoland landscaping company is starting to turn into pure gold.
R
uben Diaz Sr. worked landscaping in the Chicago area with his brothers for the better part of two decades. He worked hard, as did his two oldest sons—Rafael and Ruben Jr.—who often helped out in the field since the young age of seven. To say they loved landscaping is putting it mildly. It was always Ruben Sr.’s intention to start a company with his sons one
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MARCH 2017
day. That dream came to fruition 10 years ago. Rafael had just completed his collegiate studies in landscape design and landscape management. Ruben Jr. was coming down the home stretch of earning his degree in landscape management and business. The landscaping industry was going up and up and up. The timing seemed perfect. Ruben Sr. took his shares of Diaz
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Brothers Landscaping and started Diaz Group LLC with Rafael and Ruben Jr. in 2007. He’d left his brothers on good terms. “They hated to lose their brother as a business partner, but they knew he wanted to start a company with his sons—and they respected and supported that,” Rafael recalls. “In fact, my uncles were our biggest allies in our early years.”
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2/27/17 12:46 PM