TV Host Francisca Lachapel Transforms Childhood Home as Gift to Mom

Just in time for Christmas, Francisca Lachapel, the Dominican TV host and former beauty queen, fulfilled a promise she made to her mom as a little girl: She gave her mom her dream home.

On Dec. 20, Lachapel posted contrasting ‘before’ and ‘after’ images of the home she grew up in the Dominican Republic, writing: “Right around Christmas time, I always saw my mom excited about getting a little money to fix our small home little by little, but those remodeling projects were never materialized because the money was never enough for everything the house needed.”

Witnessing her mom’s unfulfillable longing was painful, but it also planted the seed that drove her future success: “My heart ached from hearing her say her dream was to live in a nice house. From the first day I heard her wishing that with a sigh, I promised myself I would work hard to make her dream a reality.”

After winning Univision’s Nuestra Belleza Latina reality beauty pageant in 2015, Lachapel has spent the last two years co-hosting talk show Despierta América, which aired Lachapel’s journey back to the Dominican Republic to reunite with her mom and reveal her updated home. The show captures construction workers providing the finishing touches on her childhood abode, which was transformed from a humble little dwelling to a mansion. Lachapel also took her mother shopping for brand new furniture and appliances. “Thanks to my beautiful mother for making me, with a lot of effort, into the woman I am today. You deserve this and more,” her post continued.

“I share this with you so that you never lose faith,” she wrote, “And you don’t give up until you see your dreams come true.”