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Highlands Today

Vegetable Stand Owner To Get Passport

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Lucio Anaya helped a customer pick out a watermelon last week at his Avon Park produce stand as his daughter in-law, Agustina Anaya, sorted watermelons.

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: May 20, 2008

AVON PARK — Congressman Putnam's office has called Lucio Anaya Sr. and to say his passport will arrive soon.

"He called me," said Patricia Austin, who wrote Putnam on Anaya's behalf. "He said they have approved his passport.

"That's wonderful," said Austin. "Hopefully, he'll get it within two weeks."

Anaya, an Avon Park vegetable stand operator who lives in Frostproof, has applied twice for a passport, but was sent a letter with requests for more documents.

Anaya was born in Hidalgo County, Texas, and has an original birth certificate. When he was a few weeks old, his parents were told to leave the U.S., so his mother walked across the border without deportation records, he said. A former fruit picker himself, he returned to Texas as a teenager, and moved to Frostproof in the 1990s.

On Friday, he met with case workers in Rep. Adam Putnam's office.
"I gave them all my papers," he said Saturday. "They will send them to Miami."

The congressman's office FedExed about 20 papers directly to the director of the passport office in Miami. They included an affidavit from his mother, who lives in Okeechobee, that her son was born in America.

"We had several conversations with the passport office," said Keith Rupp, the congressman's media aide. "We sent them a great many documents, and that satisfied their request. They promised to expedite his case, and they did."

However, Anaya, who turned 53 on Thursday, was on his way to Mexico on Tuesday.

"He's very sick. He's going to the doctor there," said Austin. Anaya said he gets medical treatment in Mexico because it's less expensive than American hospitals. On Saturday, he thought he may have a cold, but by Tuesday, the illness looked more serious. He boarded a bus for Mexico.

"He may be going for an operation," Austin said. "I'm very sad about that, and I've told him my prayers will be with him."

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