American dream comes true for Sposato Landscape manager

For three days, Sposato Landscape Manager Jorge Yegros stared at the mailbox which stood across the road from his home in Frankford. A voice inside was telling him to go check his mail. But he was watching his 2-year-old daughter and didn’t want to leave her alone, even if only for a few minutes. And he didn’t want to carry her across the busy highway.

“But that voice kept calling,” said Yegros, who recently received his U.S. citizenship after a four-month process. When he finally checked the next day, he got the announcement that his citizenship was approved and his induction ceremony was the next day in Philadelphia. “If I hadn’t checked the mailbox, I would have missed the ceremony,” said the 31-year-old native of Paraguay.

Yegros’ long and winding journey to citizenship began serendipitously. As a 21-year-old in a small farming community in rural Paraguay, he was enjoying himself hunting and fishing with his friends. “We owned the woods,” he said. “And we ate everything we killed.”

Then he befriended a young Peace Corps volunteer named Samantha, who was training local farmers in modern farming techniques, and he became her informal interpreter. “She hardly spoke Guarani, so I helped her out,” he said of the local language. What started as a friendship blossomed into love over the next two years. When Samantha’s tour was over in 2006, and she was about to move back to her home in Bethesda, Md., she asked him to come back with her. “I came in on a 90-day visa they call a fiancé visa,’” said Yegros. “If you weren’t married within 90 days they sent you home. We were married as soon as we got to the U.S.

“My mom was very upset,” said Yegros of his move to America. “She didn’t want me to go. She’s OK with it now since we’ve been able to go back every few years, and she and Samantha are very close. But it was tough at first.” Yegros, who is the oldest of six children, also left his father, two brothers and three sisters behind.

Yegros admits his first year in his new country was tough for him, also. Besides being homesick for his family and friends, he spoke little English. Every time he heard his name mentioned he thought someone was talking about him. “I knew I had to learn English,” he said. So he enrolled at Delaware Tech in Georgetown and took English as a second language classes, taking English grammar, reading, writing, listening and speaking.

“That changed everything,” he said. “People here are very nice. They are willing to help you out. But you have to speak the language in order to see that.” By his second year, he was enjoying living in the United States.

He started a house-cleaning business but wanted a career that allowed him to work outside. A short time later, he met Rich McCracken, a Sposato Landscape manager who liked his work ethic and enthusiasm. McCracken soon hired him as a laborer, and he mowed, edged, pruned and weeded lawns. In a short time, he was promoted to crew leader and is now an account manager, so he leads a crew of 14 landscapers who maintain resort communities in Bethany Beach.

“I love working at Sposato,” said Yegros. “They have given me a lot of opportunities to grow.” He is also impressed that many of his fellow Sposato managers learned Spanish in order to communicate better with him and their Hispanic employees.

“There are those who say the American dream is dead,“ said Sposato owner Tony Sposato. “I think Jorge proves it’s alive and well. Jorge came here, learned the language, worked hard, and now has guaranteed a bright future for him and his family. Everyone here at Sposato is thrilled for him.”

Yegros looks back on the life he came from and is glad he made the move. Despite the fact that he came from a loving family, growing up there was a hardscrabble life. “We lived in a very poor area,” he said. “There wasn’t much electricity, and we had no running water in our house. We had to go get water for washing and cooking from a neighbor’s well and haul it back to our house. Plus, the schools were just OK. They didn’t have a lot of money for books and supplies. If I had stayed, I probably would have followed my father and friends into the sugarcane plant that converts sugar into alcohol for fuel.”

Yegros and Samantha, who is now a nurse in Seaford, have one daughter, Lily Maria, and a son due in June. “I love the culture here in the U.S,” he said. “People are willing to help someone else out. People are very nice. Now that I speak the language, I feel like I belong.”

Part of belonging included becoming a U.S. citizen. “I wanted to be the same as everyone else,” he said. “My wife helped me with the application. I got fingerprinted and then took my test. They asked 10 questions about U.S. history and government. It was nerve-wracking because you were sitting face-to-face with the instructor.”

And finally, the induction ceremony was held. “There were people there from 65 countries,” said Yegros. “We recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Then they called us up one at a time to get our certificates. I felt very proud. It was a challenge, but it was worth it because there is a lot of opportunity here in America.”