SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Guyard Silvera, the hot dog man, turned his life around after being deported from the United States for the third time in 2007, having spent nearly 10 years in a New York prison that last time.

The way the 51-year-old tells it, he was deported twice before that — in 1982 and again in 1993 — after serving his sentence. Each time, the confessed former drug dealer and cocaine addict for 10 years found a way back to New York — illegally, ‘bandooloo style’ — only to be eventually caught, imprisoned and sent back to Jamaica.

But everything changed when Silvera, who says he was introduced into drugs by a drug-dealing father, set foot in Kingston in 2007 as a 46-year-old. He decided there and then that enough was enough.

He had been through too much, he said. Apart from having served three prison terms, he was kidnapped and shot three times when he was 19 years old by goons angered at his refusal to take them to his father.

“I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t go that route anymore… I refused to go back to prison for any reason at all,” Silvera told the Jamaica Observer Central.

“Any attempt to go back to the States was a chance of me going back to prison, so I decided I would have to stay in Jamaica and rough it out,” he added.

And admittedly, it was tough. Silvera, who grew up in Kingston before migrating at age 14, said he tried his hands at many things in the quest to make a living in Jamaica. There was construction work, building cement blocks, selling clothes on the streets, and driving robot taxis.

Finally, “’round about 2009” Silvera said he started to ask himself: “What is there that I am good at and I know I am good at?” And so it came to him that even while he was pushing drugs in New York, he had also worked “very succesfully” with his mother selling hot dogs.

“I knew I was good, very good, at selling hot dogs. Every day on the streets of New York I used to get compliments … so I said ‘why not try that right here in Jamaica’,” Silvera recalled.

He felt his first task was to convince his mother to “fix up one of the old broken-down carts in her garage” and send it to him. But it wasn’t easy. She, in addition to other family members, questioned the wisdom of such a venture.

“It was like ‘Jamaica is a patty place, hot dogs not going to sell’,” Silvera said. But finally, his mother heeded his pleas and sent a cart.

He started out in 2010. By then he had moved to Lacovia — where a friend of his mother had rented him a house — and discovered that there was indeed a market for hot dogs.

He selected a particular brand of sausage which he felt kept its texture better than others and stuck to that. He also found that his bewitching mix of toppings, including sauerkraut, onions, mayonnaise, mustard, radish, pepper, ketchup, and cheese had a pleasing effect on the palate.

He cultivated a strict regime of “cleanliness, professionalism and customer care” to build his business, ensuring that “whoever comes will come again”. He worked “16-, 18-hour days”, saved his money and repaid his mother.

In two years, Silvera’s hot dog business moved from being a one-man operation to employing eight people. He now has stands in Black River, Junction and Santa Cruz, the latter being the flagship operation with three carts, one of which is open “round the clock” and provides not only hot dogs, but “teas of choice” and sandwiches as well.

Silvera, who describes himself as a “people person”, had also expanded to Manchester, running carts in Mandeville and Christiana, but he had to pull back because he found he had spread himself too thin.

But his plan is still to “grow and grow and grow” since, as he puts it, the potential of fast food in Jamaica is tremendous.

“For me the sky is the limit,” he added.

The 51-year old is now seeking to formally register his business and wants to set up a “shop of sorts”, in addition to his carts. As of right now, Silvera says he is handicapped by inadequate funds and would welcome a good faith investor.

“I even went to Kingston and spoke to a representative of (a major food processing company) about ideas that I had, but he didn’t seem interested; or maybe I was talking to the wrong person, but that’s something I still want to do,” he said.

Silvera says he will always be grateful to his mother who “believed in me and gave me the opportunity” by sending carts and helping to start the business. He is also thankful to the St Elizabeth Co-op Credit Union and the National Commercial Bank for “also believing in the project” and providing loans.

He takes pride in knowing that others have followed his example and are now in the hot dog business. He is also happy that he can stand as a beacon and a good example to the many deportees from the United States and elsewhere who come to Jamaica annually, many “with no hope”.

“I notice people talk about people who have been deported. They look at them like they are nobody or don’t have a future and that’s not true. A lot of good people who have been deported have great potential. The system just needs to give them a chance,” he said.

He advises fellow deportees to stay positive. “Don’t give up, stay right here in Jamaica, work hard at whatever you are doing… get a skill or work at something you are good at, and work hard,” he said.

Silvera says he is inspired by his 16-year-old daughter, a high school student and the last of his five children, whom he fathered in the Nineties when he was deported for the second time. He describes her as his pride and joy. When he thinks of her, he says, he knows he must never ever return to prison.

He remembers that as a teenaged drug dealer he drove a BMW and wore “rings on every finger and big chains” around his neck. But that life is long gone.

“Today the only thing the police must be asking me is ‘Sir, can I see your licence and registration?'” said Silvera, smiling.