Thread: Newest citizens keeping native tie

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allh ... /82583.php

Newest citizens keeping native tie
Cultural heritage still vital as they pledge U.S. loyalty
By Lourdes Medrano
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

As in years past, Joel Muñoz today will watch the Fourth of July fireworks and partake in a backyard barbecue with family and friends.

But it will be the first Independence Day that the Mexico native will observe as a U.S. citizen.

Muñoz expects that the nation's 229th birthday will give him pause to reflect on his new legal status. He took the oath of citizenship just three weeks ago.

At the same time, like most Americans, Muñoz will celebrate with a cookout. His will be uniquely Mexican: c arne asada instead of hot dogs, beans instead of potato salad, salsa instead of ketchup.

Muñoz, 39, personifies the nation's new Americans. Unlike earlier immigrants, today's newcomers are willing to pledge allegiance to their new country without shedding their ethnic identity.

A caterer at a Mexican restaurant, Muñoz speaks English on the job and Spanish at home. He watches old Mexican movies and prefers tamales to hamburgers. He's a family man, he said. "An American."

Even though he has lived here for 15 years, Muñoz said, "Now I feel like I'm more a part of this country because I'm already a citizen."

As a new American born in Mexico, Muñoz is in good company. Figures from fiscal 2003, the most recent figures available, show that most naturalized citizens are coming from Mexico and Asia.

Of the most recent 463,000 new citizens, Mexico contributed the highest number, 56,100. India followed with 29,800, the Philippines with 29,100, Vietnam with 26,000 and China with 24,000.

The numbers reflect trends in legal immigration, which over the decades have shifted away from Europe to Asia and Latin America.

Census data show that out of about 296.5 million people living in the United States, 34 million were born outside the country. Slightly more than half of those were born in Latin America.

Muñoz is a native of Navojoa, in southern Sonora. Like many of his compatriots in rural Mexico, he traveled north in his 20s in search of better job opportunities. He worked in a Nogales, Sonora, maquiladora until 1990, when he traveled to Tucson for a visit and stayed.

"This country is full of blessings," Muñoz said, adding that opportunities abound for anyone who is willing to work hard.

He worked illegally in restaurants, hotels and factories for years. He eventually married Elizabeth, a U.S. citizen, and obtained his legal residency in the mid-1990s.

Like his mother-in-law, Laura Barcelo, who became a citizen in April, Muñoz looks forward to voting for the first time. "You can't make your voice heard if you don't vote," he said.

Barcelo, 58, said she is much like her son-in-law in that she still feels a strong bond with her country of birth. But she said obtaining her citizenship after 35 years of living in the United States has reaffirmed her sense of belonging.

"This is my country, this is where I matured, this is where my children were born," said Barcelo, a self-employed housekeeper.

Rene Franco, director of the Immigration and Citizenship Program of Catholic Social Services of Tucson, said this country will attract immigrants as long as jobs are plentiful. Poverty and political turmoil in other regions also will keep pushing immigrants here, he said.

"People still see America as a beacon of hope … and I think becoming a citizen reinforces that feeling," said Franco, a naturalized citizen born in Guatemala.

Franco, who helps immigrants with the citizenship application process, said new Americans are no less patriotic than those already here. Many join the military, willing to die for their adopted country.

Immigrants from Latin America, as well as other regions, bring cultural traditions that enrich this country, said Douglas Rivlin, a spokesman for the National Immigration Forum in Washington, D.C.

But Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., said the large immigrant influx from Latin America should cause concern. In particular, he cited a decline in diversity and a generally low educational attainment of Hispanic immigrants.

In addition, he said, Hispanic immigrants tend to be slow to assimilate into mainstream society, in part because of the conflicting messages they get about what it is to be an American. In the early 1900s, Camarota said, immigrants got a unified message "to come to fully identify with one America."

Now, the focus is on multiculturalism in a country that is rather a "collection of people" with their own unique identities. What's needed, Camarota said, are lower immigration levels.

Muñoz and Barcelo said they have no plans to renounce their ties to Mexico, where they still have relatives. But they said they became citizens to participate more fully in this society.

Barcelo today, for the first time, will display the American flag on her mailbox. It is the beginning of a new tradition. Then she will drive to Muñoz's home for the Fourth of July festivities, a tiny red, white and blue flag tied to her car's antenna.

Ho Hum. What else is new?

AND now that these two are citizens they can apply to bring all 252 members of the family here from Mexico.....

I see the Presidents plan is working very well. Once all the relatives are here, that is.