U.S. citizenship is precious to newest batch of Americans

Ram—n Renteria El Paso Times

Daehanka Collazo, as giddy as a high school senior at graduation, flashed a thumbs-up that said it all.

"Now, I'm a real soldier," she said. "I'm not going to be a foreigner anymore."

Collazo, 27, an Army specialist born in Venezuela, is celebrating her first Fourth of July as a U.S. citizen, feeling the same pride, she said, that Lee Greenwood so eloquently expressed in the hit song "God Bless the U.S.A."

"Having a better life, that's what it's all about," she said. "I came to the states and started from zero."

Collazo and 498 other immigrants from 35 different countries recently took the oath as new naturalized citizens. Before it was all over, before all the waiting and high-fiving and tears and abrazos, the guerita from Venezuela reflected on the symbolic step she was about to take.

"This is a big, big thing for me," she said. "I'm going to get the right to choose who's going to be my president and my governor."

Collazo arrived in the United States in 1999, not really intending to devote her life to the military as she now plans to do.

"After 9-11, I felt that I needed to do something for this country," she said. "People always think we come here to steal people's jobs and do bad things."

Collazo opted for the right to choose. "They call it the American dream," she said.

Collazo still dreams of bringing her mother to the United States, dreams also of advancing to chief warrant officer by the time she quits the Army.

"Don't get me wrong, I do still love my country," she said. "But we pray that Venezuela is not converted into another Cuba."

So when Raul Aguilar sang his heart-rending rendition of the national anthem and Greenwood's tug-at-the-heart ballad in a room full of immigrants and VIPs and government officials and proud relatives, the entire hall seemed to sob.

Later, U.S. District Judge Phil Martinez would tell the audience: "You never have to forget where you come from. Our nation becomes enriched today because our family becomes a little bit larger."

A bit larger and filled with diverse people embracing different hopes and dreams and promises.

Nemesio Martinez, 80, a native of Mexico, is celebrating this holiday with a barbecue and the badge of American citizenship, the promise he made his wife but could not fulfill before she died.

"Everything I have and everything I've done is because of this country," he said.

Borra Reddy, 27, already finished medical school in India. Now, he's ready -- with his U.S. citizenship -- to do his residency and eventually become an internal medicine physician. His parents, also naturalized citizens, are physicians in Odessa.

"I'm proud and honored to be a citizen of the United States, one of the best countries in the world," Reddy said. "There's more opportunity, more freedom, more of everything in America, a place where everyone can pursue their goals and achieve their dreams."

No one could identify with those ideals better than Army Pfc. Leiris Escobal, 20, who cried at the end, thinking of how she had finally broken free from the yoke of her native Cuba. She and her family left four years ago.

"I'm now a complete U.S. citizen, and I'm a soldier of the United States," she said.

Su Sullivan, 36, one of nine South Koreans gaining U.S. citizenship, found inspiration in her young U.S.-born daughter, Crystal, who often helped her memorize the names of all the presidents.

"Now, I want to get a better education," she said.

Priya Mydur, 19, became a U.S. citizen with her brother Ravi Mydur, 23. Both are natives of India but have lived in the United States most of their lives.

"Citizenship is an affirmation of the pride," she said. "I've excelled in all the schools. Finally, I can represent this country. I'm diverse and intelligent."

Luis Silva, 24, a Mexican native studying criminal justice in Houston, summed up the privilege of embracing U.S. citizenship in one word: "happiness."

"For me, it was a big struggle," he said. "But this is the ticket, one step up to a new beginning."