In August, Aldo Rojas feared that he would end up living on the streets and made the tough decision of asking his father for help. They had not been close for 17 years.

"It was hard, and I didn't know if it was worth it," said Rojas, 30, who was unemployed for 18 months. “Eventually, I knew that this encounter was gonna take place, but I never knew it would happen because of the crisis.”

But his father, 58-year-old Manuel Rojas, was more approachable than he had thought.

“He embraced me and he said: ‘You know what? You got a job here.’”

Aldo Rojas has been working at his father's Harlem video-rental store, Videomania, since that conversation. He said he sees the store, located on Tiemann Place, near 125th Street, as a long-term investment, not just a temporary haven during the recession. Rojas said he is aware that the video-rental business faces competition from on-demand television programs and online streaming. His goal is to reinvent the floundering business and becoming its manager.

As part of that plan, Rojas purchased a computer and is learning to use the software, something he didn't have to do in his previous job.

A friend of his father's created a specific Excel spreadsheet for him, organized according to the types of movies he wants to offer. Rojas plans to use the spreadsheet to track the movies and his customers. So far, he has been using a handwritten register.

The store often has fewer than five customers a day, but Rojas plans to attract more people by offering new releases, Blu-ray movies, videogames and cell phones. He also wants to repaint the storefront, put posters on the windows and do more advertising in the neighborhood.

"Old movies are not gonna pay for all that," he said. “Sales should pick up, and rentals should pick up because people want to see new stuff.”

Aldo Rojas, who was born in the Dominican Republic, immigrated with his mother to New York City when he was two years old. His father had already left them to create a new life for himself in the United States. Manuel Rojas opened the video store, later married another woman and rarely saw his son during the following years. Before they reunited in August, they had not spoken to each other for three years. Now, the father's first business is bringing them back together.

Rojas said that he has had some freedom to manage Videomania because his father has now other businesses to run.

"He's respecting my way of doing it; it's my decision," Rojas said. "But he's gonna have to let loose a little bit." One issue that they have discussed is what to do with the 3,000 VHS movies that occupy half of the store's space. While his father would prefer to sell each video, the son would rather auction off the collection to make more room in the store.

As part of their arrangement, the father has agreed to pay half of the $1,200 rent, while the rest is paid by a Fedex branch that occupies half the store's space. Rojas hopes revenues from the business will eventually allow him to pay the rent instead of his father. For now, he needs the money to upgrade the store, pay his own bills and debts, and help raise his 8-year-old daughter, Sky.

"Some weeks, I cannot even pay for clothes," he said.

He also said that he needs to adapt to the change of pace of his new situation. At his previous job, at an event-planning company, Rojas would often carry heavy floral arrangements. These days, he stands behind the counter nine hours a day, seven days a week.

“It was heavy work, but I already knew what I had to do; whatever I was told to do, I had to do,” said Rojas. “Here, I get crazy with numbers.”

Rojas was laid-off in January 2008, when the company was hit by the recession and started laying-off his most experienced workers, including him. He was offered a salary lower than $24,000, what he was accustomed to. He said he decided to wait for a better-paid opportunity.

“I couldn’t just go anywhere and take minimum wage,” he said.

But the opportunity Rojas sought didn't materialize.

Instead, he remained unemployed for a year and a half, and decided to fully concentrate on an activity he had so far only considered as a side income. With his brother, they copied around 100 DVD’s a day and made $1 out of each one, selling them to street vendors. When one of them got arrested, he and his brother sold the rest of the DVD's and then stashed everything in Rojas' basement.

His financial situation started to get desperate. Then, he said he lived his worst day as an unemployed father of one.

Someone, he said, offered him a deal in an illegal business. He refused to explain what it entailed but said: "I had crazy thoughts on my mind."

Rojas said this situation marked a turning point for him. That was when, he said, he swallowed his pride and went to see his father. Their relationship is slowly evolving as he works on improving his father's former store.

"Now, we're beginning to talk to each other like father and son," he said. "He trusts me and sees that I can do it on my own."