Our story is an immigrant story beginning in the Azores Islands archipelago off of the coast of Portugal. It was from there that Lino Vieira Sr immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager with nothing but $40 in his pocket and a strong ambition for business from the island of Sao Jorge.
Lino arrived in San Jose, CA circa 1958 and found work as a dairy hand like many other Azorean immigrants of the time. He eventually transitioned to work as a construction laborer, and then a drywaller. Opportunity met luck and Lino found himself right in the middle of the beginnings of the tremendous economic and real estate growth of the Silicon Valley.
Lino had met and married Mary Avila, an immigrant herself from the Azores Island of Pico, and the two had a young family. Mary worked as a maid and the two saved up enough money to eventually start their own drywall company. It would be named San Jose Drywall, and through hard work it would grow to become one of the largest drywall companies in the Bay Area.
The success of San Jose Drywall allowed Lino and Mary to transition to their passion of real estate development and investment and the rest is history. Lino passed away in 2008, but he left behind a business built on honesty, respect, and hard work. He also left behind Mary, 6 children, and 7 grandchildren all of whom still work together carrying on the business he built from the ground up.