Meet El Hemi, the Dodge Challenger That’s Been to Venezuela and Back

Juan J. Escalante, 58, an international construction equipment salesman living in Miami, on his 1970 Dodge Hemi Challenger R/T, as told to A.J. Baime.

I was initially raised in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1969, my father Jose’s best friend moved to Detroit to work for Chrysler. After six months, he called and said to my father, “Why don’t you come up here? This is heaven.” They were both car nuts. So my father sold his 1968 Dodge Dart, quit his job, and we moved as a family to Michigan when I was 4. My father went to school and then got a gig with a Chrysler supplier in Michigan.