Cristobal Portorreal, a 73-year-old civil engineer, was the first winner in the drawings for projects held by the Ministry of Education in the National District yesterday, Wednesday 17 December 2014, for the construction of a childcare center valued at RD$32,825,944.46. Applause was immediately heard after Notary Cristina Rosario read out his name from the ticket that was drawn by student Pedro Alejandro Prensa. The noise came from the right side of the main hall of the Public Works Club, where the drawings were being held. Then a short man appeared, thin with a scraggly gray beard, wearing white sneakers, a little black bag hanging on one side and a blue baseball cap on his head and folder in hand, he climbed up to the registration table to prove his identity. Minutes later Portorreal was still speechless.
“I am so excited that I can hardly talk, and so excited about this surprise that luck has given me,” he said with tears in his eyes. The story of this father of six who lives in Bayona, Santo Domingo West, is an example of self-improvement. He graduated as an engineer from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) at the age of 61 after a great deal of sacrifice and willpower. “I began to study late, because I am the son of poor rural parents who couldn’t even send me to school. I started attending school when I reached the capital, when I was already a young man,” he explained. He worked in construction and masonry for much of his life, so that he knew the practice, but lacked the theory. And he had never built a project for the state, but he did build family houses and projects in the private sector as a master builder. He went looking for the opportunity of his life and he registered in as many drawings of projects that were opened by the state, until his lucky day finally arrived.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/12/18/i931911_primera-obra-cristbal-estado.html
Ingeniero de 73 años construirá estancia infantil al ganar sorteo