A Dream Dies and Is Reborn

Jovita Sanchez had lived in America less than a year. The pregnant woman dreamed constantly of the day when she and her husband could bring their three other children from their native Mexico.

But her life ended tragically on the hard pavement of a Santa Ana street, the victim of a hit-and-run driver who dragged her body 200 feet before fleeing the scene near the church that she attended regularly.

Six months pregnant with her fourth child, the 25-year-old Sanchez was run down Sunday night as she stepped off a bus three blocks from the home where she and her husband rented a room.

But although her life ended sadly and senselessly, the dream would not die with her, Jovita’s husband vowed Tuesday through tears and fitful gasps.

The non-English-speaking Constantino Sanchez said Tuesday, as he prepared to take his wife’s body to their home in Cirandero, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, that he would return to the United States with their three children.

“My wife has gone to her God. But she left me an inheritance--our children,” said Sanchez, who with his wife worked in the kitchen of a fashionable restaurant in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza.

“It was our dream to bring our children here, so that they would not have the hard life that we had,” he said. “Their mother is dead, but I will continue. I shall be a good example for them.”

Jovita Sanchez left work at 3 p.m. Sunday to visit friends. At 8 p.m., she returned to the restaurant to see her husband. She then took the bus ride home that ended in her death.

“They came and told me something had happened. They wouldn’t tell me what happened, but I knew my wife must have died . . . because they would only tell me, ‘Wait until you get home, then you will know,’ ” Sanchez said Tuesday.

When he reached home, he learned that his wife and their unborn son had been pronounced dead at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

Santa Ana police detectives found the car that hit her 1 1/2 miles from the scene just minutes after the 9 p.m. accident. The driver and two passengers had run away.

“We don’t have very good leads at this point,” Santa Ana Police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said.

Nelva Pacheco, who rented the room to the Sanchezes in a neatly trimmed neighborhood in the 1200 block of South Broadway, said that Jovita Sanchez was a reserved but very giving woman.

“She was a beautiful person, very loving. She always talked about her children. They were her life and all that she dreamed about,” Pacheco said.

On the front porch of the Pacheco home Tuesday, Constantino Sanchez shuffled through pictures of three smiling children who have waited in Mexico for the return of their parents.

Luz, now 8, was the couple’s first child after their marriage when Jovita was 16 and Constantino was 17. Two years later, the couple had Rey Jose, now 6. The uneducated Constantino had to struggle to support his family.

So he came to California in search of better wages and the dream of becoming an American. He sent money home, and went to visit his wife and children when he could. During those trips, the couple had another child, Daisy.

Once Jovita joined him here, they began to save more money and were happy that their fourth child would be born in the United States.

Today, Sanchez will accompany his wife’s casket back to their impoverished Mexican home. He is paying the transportation costs with their savings.

“We didn’t have much, but what we had we earned with our sweat,” he said. “I have taken care of all the costs.”

Jovita Sanchez was struck down near St. Anne’s Catholic Church, where she had regularly attended Mass. His wife’s unyielding faith, her husband said, will help him accept her tragic death.

“She loved her God. She always had her Bible by her side,” Sanchez said. “My children shall always know how good their mother was, how special she was.

“And I will continue with our lives because tomorrow I want them to have the chance to triumph . . . and all because of the loving memory of their mother.”

With the death of his wife and unborn son, Sanchez for now has also lost the opportunity to become an American citizen because of his return to Mexico. But that is another dream, he said, that will not be forgotten.

“Within two months, I will be back here with my children. Life is very hard . . . and very sad,” he said, sobbing. “But we will survive and have as good a life as we can.”