BY STACY ST. CLAIR
Daily Herald Staff Writer

Rico Solis grew up in the impoverished Philippines, buoyed by decidedly American aspirations.

He wanted two things from life: a fast car and a military career.

Murdered at age 17, the Palatine teen didn't live long enough to have either.

Rico Solis

Having spent most of his years in Manila, Solis understood life held no guarantees. His father, Ramon, was stabbed to death in 1987 when Rico was only 12 years old.

His mother, Evelyn Urgena, had remarried and moved to the United States that same year, leaving Rico and her two young daughters in their grandfather's care. With both parents gone, young Rico assumed much of the responsibility for his younger sisters, Jade and Jizelle.

"He was the one who took care of us," said Jade Solis, now 24 and living in the Chicago area. "He was our protector."

Five years later, Urgena and her new husband brought the children to come live with them in the Northwest suburbs. Rico welcomed the move.

The fast car, the military career - everything he wanted - they were in his grasp. The American dream would not escape him.

"He was very excited to find out he was coming to the United States, land of opportunity and democracy," his grandfather wrote in a letter after the teen's death.

Rico intended to seize the advantages afforded him in America. He wanted to learn, to work and eventually to enlist in the Army like his grandfather before him.

"I'm going to do something with my life," he told his sisters.

Solis believed hard work would be the root of his success. At the urging of his friend and fellow Filipino Michael Castro, he got a job at Brown's Chicken & Pasta in Palatine four months after emigrating.

He used his first paychecks to purchase a red 1986 Dodge Charger from his stepfather. After that, most of the earnings were earmarked for necessities such as insurance and clothes. A little money also was put aside each week in hopes of someday buying a sportier car.

Shortly after starting at the restaurant, Rico used a paycheck to buy an entirely new outfit, right down to new boxer shorts and socks. At the time, no one could have known he would be buried in the clothes three months later.

"I bought it in case something comes up," he told his sisters.

At 17, he had almost complete financial independence from his mother and stepfather.

"He paid all his own bills," his stepsister Carmela Urgena said. "He was just such a nice, hard-working kid."

A quiet teen with strong determination, Solis immersed himself in American culture. He worked at a fast-food restaurant, loved action movies such as "Die Hard" and brushed up on his English whenever possible.

He loved video games and alternative music. He enjoyed his world history classes and, like most upperclassmen with younger siblings, ignored his sister in the hallways of Palatine High School.

Yet, Solis was a self-appointed guardian to his sisters away from the campus. He spent much of his free time with them, even giving up his New Year's Eve plans to join his family at St. Edna's Catholic Church in Arlington Heights a week before his death.

A few days later, Solis and his sisters spent the evening on the front porch watching their first snowfall. When enough snow had accumulated, he convinced his sisters to come play.

The teen initiated a snowball fight with the girls that lasted more than an hour. When they finished, they all fell to the ground to make snow angels.

"Isn't this nice?" Rico asked his sisters as they admired their seraphs.

Jade Solis often thinks of that evening.

"You know, he was right," she said. "It really was nice."