A dream come true

The 39-year-old, his wife Aurelia and their 5-year-old daughter moved into their new Lime Street palace in Bonita Springs this June. Pride seeps from the three-bedroom home, still ripe with that new-home smell.

Tile floors, sparkling. Sky-blue carpet, spotless. Young flowers budding in the front yard.

"It was a far-off idea. I didn't know how to (buy a house) but I collected information here and there," he said, while sitting in his living room on a recent afternoon with his shy wife.

"I feel very happy and content."

When the couple moved from Manna Christian RV Park to Pueblo Bonito about four years ago, Aparicio attended sessions provided by the farmworker community on how to save for a home.

Pueblo Bonito was created not only to give migrant workers a reasonably priced place to stay, but to serve as a stepping stone for residents to realize the dream of owning their own home. Officials there say the Aparicios are a textbook example of how that philosophy is working.

"I tell them save your money. Don't be buying more cars. He took that approach," said Carlos Lizano, Pueblo Bonito's general manager. "The only way to succeed in life is to know things If you don't know, you're going to walk like a blind man."

Aparicio developed good credit through classes at the Bonita Springs Area Housing Development Corp.

The couple stowed away $500 a month during the four years they lived in Pueblo Bonito where they paid around $450 in rent. They lived strictly by a budget -- buying only food, clothes and medicine.

"Only the most necessary," Aparicio said.

And forget vacations. He dreamed of visiting Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon but settled for watching travel shows on television.

Natives of the Mexican state Oaxaca, Laurentino and Aurelia arrived in the United States in 1992. They traveled with the picking seasons to Michigan, Tennessee and Oregon.

"We saved nothing. The little bit that we earned, we spent. It was very difficult until we said, 'Let's establish ourselves somewhere,'" Aparicio said.

Florida became their destination because picking seasons were longer. They lived in trailers behind the Garguilo tomato packing-house before moving to Manna Christian RV Park and renting a tiny room, then a trailer.

Now they both work for BHN Seed, a research arm of Garguilo in East Bonita Springs, 40-hour-a-week jobs with benefits, he says proudly.

After saving $10,000 for hefty downpayment, the two scoured Bonita in the afternoon to find a home for about a month. They knew Lime Tree home was the house -- their house --but were certain they couldn't afford it.

"I liked it so much when I saw it for the first time," he said.

But the first night in their new home was melancholy.

"I felt a mixture of joy and sadness. I was glad because I was the owner of a house. I was sad because so many people here and in the world don't have the opportunity to have their own house," he said, eyes wet and smiling.

He thanks God for giving the family the health and strength to succeed.

Now with the $1,095 check Pueblo Bonito gave the family, they'll likely make payments toward the cream leather couches, small television and coffee tables they're renting to own.

They didn't want their old, worn furniture in their new home.

Pueblo Bonito gives back 5 percent of rent paid to people who have lived there 24 months, are punctual with rent and follow the community's strict rules.

So far, about 20 families from Pueblo Bonito have purchased their own homes.

"This is going to help," Aparicio said, check in hand.

(Contact Staff Writer Janine Zeitlin at 213-6036 or jazeitlin@naplesnews.com )