Pablo Aguilera left Mexico to find a better life. He wanted to give his children more opportunity than he could have had in Jalisco. 

"His dream was to have us have a good job," said Carmen Gutierrez, Pablo Aguilera's granddaughter. "I don't think that he'd see us going out and being millionaires, just as long as we were happy and had a house." 

The future of the Aguilera family looks less like grapevines and more like microchips and motherboards. 

Aside from a few years in the Army, Ray Aguilera has spent his entire life in Ontario. He has made his living in the area's dwindling aerospace industry. 

He raised his five children with the same strong work ethic that earned him a sufficiently solid living to support them and sent all five to college. 

They have gone on to be a credit manager, an orthodontic assistant, a warehouse worker and a nurse. One son followed in his father's career path but was laid off after Lockheed moved its aerospace operation to Palmdale and is still looking for work. 

Now, Ray Aguilera is watching some of his grandchildren enter their college days. 

He and his children have high hopes for the next generation of Aguileras, Vasquezes and Gutierrezes. 

It appears the community harbors a similar hope for his grandchildren: Ontario Mills' community foundation awarded one of 18 college scholarships last year to his grandson, John Ray Vasquez, 16. 

A sophomore at Chaffey High School, John Ray is the third generation from his family to compete on the school's track squad, though he prefers running cross country. 

The scholarship will give him money for college as long as he maintains a certain grade point average and performs 1,000 hours of community service. 

John Ray said he wants to attend a UC school, study computer engineering and stay in Ontario. 

"Ontario's turning into a pretty big city," he said. "I hope there will be job opportunities." 

If city and industry leaders have their way, there will be plenty of opportunities for someone who wants to go into engineering in Ontario. 

Several groups, including the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, are trying to build an atmosphere that fosters the growth of high-tech industry in the region. 

Ray Aguilera said he only wants his grandchildren and great-grandchildren to be happy. 

"In Mexico, it was hard. My dad wanted me to do better than he had done," he said. "Me, I want them to do better than I have." 

John Ray's mother, Nellie Vasquez, said she sees a better job market in Ontario's future but maintains a bit of caution. 

"That doesn't mean the people that live out here are the ones getting the jobs," she said. 

Her sister Carmen Gutierrez said she watches as new businesses sprout, seemingly overnight, in her hometown. They have little direct impact on her life, though. 

"I don't know a lot of people that work there. I see a lot of businesses, but I don't know what kind are there," she said. 

Gutierrez, who didn't finish college but plans to return, said she hopes her sons Tony, 10, Ryan, 3, and Jason, 1, earn college degrees. 

"To get a higher-paying job you have to have a college education," she said. "It's going to be up to them" what they do. 

Throughout the generations, the Aguilera family has maintained close ties. 

All continue to live in Southern California, and most have remained in or near Ontario. 

Perhaps it is their heritage, which emphasizes family over everything, that has kept them so close. 

"I don't see me moving," Gutierrez said. "We're a close-knit family. I wanted to live close to my parents. I've been here all my life."