SOUTH PORTLAND — Moments after being sworn in as an American
citizen Friday morning, and still flush with excitement, Cape Elizabeth
resident Anna Maria Gonzales did not hesitate when asked where she is from.
“The United States!” she declared proudly, with
a broad smile.
Gonzales was born in Guatemala and came to the
United States 25 years ago, she says, “in search for a little peace from the
violence there.” An international trade consultant, Gonzales said she decided
to become a U.S. citizen after a quarter century because this is her home.
“I want to help shape this country into a better
place to live by voting, and maybe even running for office,” she said.
Gonzales was one of 54 new citizens sworn in
during a naturalization ceremony held April 13 in Southern Maine Community
College’s HUB Athletic Center. It is an event that is becoming both more
common, as immigrants that have come to Maine through the last two decades seek
stability here, and more public, as officials make the process more open to the
community at large.
According to Sally Blauvelt, field office
director for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, prospective
citizens must wait at least five years after obtaining permanent residency
status through her office. Some at Friday’s ceremony, like Roland Morse of
Alfred, who came to America from Germany as a child, have waited 51 years.
Others, like Lidi Jiang of Skowhegan via China, beat the clock under rules that
proscribe a three-year wait when permanent residency is obtained via marriage
to an American citizen.
“Whether it’s three years or five, the reason is
we want them to get enough time to integrate into our country, to understand
what our history is, and our culture, and learn the language,” said Blauvelt,
prior to administration of the Oath of Allegiance by Magistrate Judge John H.
Rich III, of the U.S. District Court.
“Our agency provides quite a lot of information
and education materials to help them get there,” said Blauvelt, explaining that
adjudicators test each applicant for criteria including mastery of English and
a knowledge of U.S. civics and history.
To qualify for citizenship, each applicant must
correctly answer six of 10 questions chosen at random from a list of 100.
“Frankly, some of the questions are not that
complicated,” said Blauvelt, listing stumpers like, “Who was the first
president?” “Where does the president live?” and “Who is one of your senators?”
“But,” she said, “for someone just coming into
the country, they do need to study for them, and that helps them integrate.”
However, in addition to the factual questions,
there also are a few conceptual queries on the list that could potentially trip
up even natural-born citizens. It’s up to the adjudicators, for example, to
decide if an applicant has successfully explained why the United States has
three branches of government and what each does.
Friday’s naturalization ceremony, said Blauvelt,
is part of a new initiative by her office to publicize and promote the process
“out in the community, where these people will work and live.”
“We have a very interesting and increasingly
diverse community to be in,” said Blauvelt. “We have had a elevated number of
these events in Maine of late simply because we’ve had a huge refugee influx.”
Groups of around 50 new citizens are now being
sworn twice each month in Maine, said Blauvelt. In fact, data provided by
Blauvelt Tuesday shows a near 20 percent increase through the Portland office,
from 822 approved non-military naturalizations in 2010 to 985 in 2011. So far
this year, there have been 265.
As Blauvelt indicated, their reasons for coming
to America are as varied as the counties they come from, but all shared a
certain pride in obtaining U.S. citizenship.
“I feel a lot of relief after so long,” said
Morse, who said he needed the aid of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ office to obtain
the necessary documentation, having been brought to the U.S. by stepparents
when he was young. Morse lives in shelter and said he now looks forward to
finding a job.
“I hope to get back on the working market now
that I have my papers,” he said. “This should help. That and my stubbornness.”
Scarborough resident Irina Goltsova, who came
from Russia, also is looking for a job.
“I was a nurse in Russia but my education did
not count here, so I started from the beginning – new language, new life,”
she said, noting that after starting at SMCC, she graduated from University of
Southern Maine’s school of nursing in December.
Goltsova arrived in the United States five years
ago, following her father, George Kurtz, an inventor with 276 ideas to his
credit who obtained a green card 14 years ago in hope of finding better luck
with the American patent process, and subsequently obtained citizenship.
“Now I am not the leader in our family,” said
Kurtz, expressing pride in his daughter’s naturalization. “Now, there are two
leaders.”
“I’m very happy, as well,” said Goltsova. “I’m
feeling very proud. I love everything here. I have felt accepted from my first
step here, even when I didn’t speak English and just smiled. Now, I am looking
forward to putting my talents to use.”
For Muhivin Alas, a Somali now living in
Lewiston, having to recertify skills he already has would be the least of his
concerns. Having arrived as a refugee from the civil war that has raged in his
homeland since 1991, he’s happy just to be alive.
“In 2006 I got an opportunity to leave a refugee
camp I had been in from 1992 and come to the United States,” Alas said. “It is
a pleasure for me to be here. I am feeling very good and confident to be a part
of one of the biggest countries were there is no more war for me.”
“My husband is a chief engineer in the Merchant
Marine,” said Jiang. “We were married in 2007 but I had to wait two years to
come here for my country to give me a visa.”
Once here, Jiang applied for citizenship, she
said, because her husband travels so much.
“On an American visa, you can go anywhere very
easy,” she explained. “With a Chinese visa, it is very difficult.”
But becoming an American is about more than
freedom of travel, says Jiang, it’s about freedom, period.
“I like the system of government very much
here,” she said. “I feel free. It feels very nice. Everyone here is very, very
nice to people like me. It makes me feel good to be American now.”
But if new citizens like Alas and Jiang are
still acclimating to American, Portland resident Luc Nya has always know he’s
at home in Maine, having arrived 20 years ago from Cameroon to study at USM.
“I have always loved America, what it stands for
and its institutions,” said Nya. “After living here the first two years I got
civically involved in the community and I felt like I belonged here. Now, to be
a citizen, it’s a great relief. I feel great.”
Nya has been plugged in to the American system
for a long time, both as a benefits supervisor for children to age 21 at the
state Department of Health and Human Services and as a board member of the
World Affairs Council of Maine, Maine Initiatives, Avesta Housing, Community
Housing of Maine and the Opportunity Alliance, among others. But although he’s
been at the forefront of his community in many ways, Nya has never been able to
perform the most basic of American rights – he could not step into the
ballot booth.
“That’s what’s key,” he said. “If I am
celebrating anything about today, it is that I am now able to vote.
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