By Nick Fontecha
The “American Dream” is real, and Gus Machado is a living example of it, say the St. Thomas University students and administrators who have read Gus Machado’s new biography, American Dream.
The Gus Machado Family Foundation recently announced the publication of Gus Machado’s biography, American Dream, the Cuban immigrant who became one of the Sunshine State’s top salesmen and one of America’s leading Ford dealers. The book follows Machado, who left Cuba at 15 to build a prosperous life. Machado may be best known to Bobcats as the namesake of the Gus Machado School of Business, funded in part by the largest gift in the history of St. Thomas University, a $5 million donation in 2015.
“Gus Machado was the ultimate servant-leader in South Florida,” St. Thomas University President David A. Armstrong, J.D. “With an emphasis on dreaming big, working hard, being ethical and generous, Gus Machado’s biography, American Dream, teaches the same kinds of lessons students learn every day at his namesake Gus Machado College of Business here at STU.”
After attending Edwards Military Institute in North Carolina and Greenville College, Machado began working for the Caterpillar Tractor Company in Illinois before moving to Miami in 1956.
With $2,000 from his father and $2,000 in personal savings, Machado began what was to become a business empire by investing in a gas station on North Miami Avenue and 17th Street. There, he sold cars imported from Cuba until 1960, when American-Cuban relations soured following the rise of Fidel Castro and the fall of former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista. His gas station sale led him to buy, operate, and open several car sales businesses before eventually acquiring his first dealership, Seipp Buick, in 1982. Two years later, he bought Johnson Ford in 1984, which became the legendary Gus Machado Ford in Hialeah.
Before his death at 87 in May 2022, Machado was honored more than a dozen times by various companies and organizations, from the Ford Motor Company to the American Cancer Society.
Beyond his business success, Machado was well known as a family man and for establishing the Gus Machado Family Foundation in 2008.
Nayshla Vergara, an STU junior from San Antonio, Texas, was moved by Machado’s biography. His charitable legacy included donations to nearly 40 causes, from the arts to education and health care. “This book felt like it was written for me,” said Nayshla, who immigrated from Colombia with her mother to the United States in 2009. “The American Dream is real.” Machado also wanted to make a better life for his future family, said Vergara, a criminal justice major who plans to attend STU’s College of Law upon graduation next May. “The opportunity to receive a scholarship to attend university would not have been possible back home,” said Vergara, who was moved by how Machado chased his dreams in America.
Machado’s biography was “an eye-opener,” said Jeremy Diaz, an STU business program student. “It’s easy to forget the sacrifices older generations made to give us opportunities,” Diaz said. Reading Machado’s book, Diaz felt grateful but also guilty for the opportunities he had been afforded by being an American.
Growing up Cuban-American in Hialeah, STU junior and communications major Mariana Chavez and her brother Lazaro Chavez, a senior at the University of Miami, were inspired by Machado’s immigrant success story. They praised the book’s authenticity. “The book connects with me and tells a story that so many Cubans here in Miami can attest to,” said Lazaro Chavez, who thinks Machado inspires countless South Florida students to make their mark on the world.
