Departing Jerez at the age of 15, Diaz was taken in by a family who footed the bill for his higher education; including transportation, books, food and tuition. With their caring assistance, he attended the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico, D.F., where he earned a technical drafting degree and completed one year of architectural training. With these achievements and a desire to give back to those who helped him so much, Diaz decided to come to the United States.

Arriving in America in 1980, Diaz had only his loving bride, Silvia, and a few relatives who lived here. A saying about Jerez, Zacatecas regarding its mountainous terrain, "that it is impossible to be there without looking up or going up," was embraced by Diaz and eagerly applied to his new life and home away from home. He began the journey with the creativity, love and passion that he has always possessed.

Starting to work at a wrought iron shop the first week he was here, he was paid a miserly sum for his hard work that included overtime. The next week he stayed home, realizing the inequity. The company then agreed to pay him a reasonable wage. He was a good worker and thereafter received raises rapidly. In 1983, he started his own business, Lamasi Iron Works. His business struggled for a while but got better, and by 1987 when he returned to Mexico for a visit he was a proud American citizen and was employing other people. He and Silvia had two children at the time and owned their home.

On the drive back from Mexico, accompanied by his nephew, a driver crossed the centerline, striking Diaz's vehicle mightily. What had become a good life was altered sharply by the accident. The life of his nephew was snuffed out and Diaz was in bed for months following surgeries to repair his body. Nothing mattered anymore. He sold his home and business and moved with his family back to Mexico.

Diaz went through a dark period of incapacitation, depression, questioning God and putting his wife and children to tears. One day as he lay in bed and seeing his wife and children crying, he felt ashamed. He had been waiting for a miracle from God not realizing God was with him all the time. He asked God's forgiveness and asked his wife for his crutches. It had been a while since he tried to stand as a man. Falling the first time, he succeeded on the second try. Two years later, Diaz was back in the United States starting all over again.

Diaz started his second business, his present one, Cinco Iron Works, Inc. in 1992. Confined to a wheelchair and still recovering from the effects of his accident that rendered him a broken femur bone and left him with one leg shorter than the other, Diaz began the endeavor with only one employee. His family had now grown to five. Hence, the name Cinco. The firm grew steadily and operations are now housed in a building owned by Diaz and his wife. Work performed by Cinco is in such noted venues as the Alf Museum, Disney California Adventure, Ontario International Airport, Exposition Park and Universal City Redline Subway Station. Life, in its bittersweet spiral, is good again. Diaz is doing what he always wanted by helping others, employing more people, diversifying his business and putting to work his dynamic creativity.

Diaz's creative talents have propelled him into the captivating world of art. His painting, "In God's Hands," inspired by the September 11th attack on the United States, is a poignant depiction of America in the riveting caress of God.