Being a United States citizen is something that is often taken for granted and not thought of when it comes to our everyday lives. Americans have rights that are used everyday such getting an education, getting married when/if we want to and voting.
Americans often forget that what the United States has is not the same in every country. Immigrants come here for different individual reasons, but overall, come here to create better lives for themselves.
Over time it has become harder and harder to come to the United States and make a better or more stable life for oneself.
On June 13, 1955 Delfina Scardelletti entered the United States of America to Ellis Island, New York City. She came through customs in New York City and settled in Trenton, New Jersey, with two out of the three siblings she had. Scardelletti took night classes to help learn the English language and to become an American citizen.
When she was ready, her sister-in-law, Maria Tattoni, helped Scardelletti fill out the proper paperwork to give to the judge that would grant Scardelletti citizenship. Delfina Scardelletti took an oral citizenship test before an American judge.
Once granted citizenship, Scardelletti celebrated with her brothers, sister-in-laws and her husband, who also was granted citizenship.
What made Scardelletti and her family immigrate to the United States from Italy was to make a better life for herself and her family. Coming to the United States was a lot different in 1955 that it was in 1980.
Nancy Lopez currently lives in Upland, California, working as a nanny. But that was not always the case. In the fall of 1980, Lopez migrated to the United States from Sinaloa, Mexico, at the age of 10.
Lopez migrated to the United States with her mother and three younger siblings from the state of Sinaloa to Mexicali in Baja, California. They stayed with family members while her mother worked in the United States to save money. After enough money was saved, Lopez and her siblings went to live with their mother. They traveled mostly by bus to enter the United States.
After 16 years of living in the United States, on Nov. 15, 1996 at the age of 26 years old Lopez became an American citizen.
“Applying [to be a citizen] is not hard, once you have a good command of the English language,” Lopez said. “The whole process is in English. The difficult part is learning English.”
The process of becoming a United States citizen is lengthy as you have to apply, be interviewed and take an exam. It takes time as you have to be literate in the English language as well as be well-versed in United States history. The written exam is 10 random questions out of a possible 100 questions. You have no idea which 10 questions will be on the exam.
Lopez succeeded in becoming a citizen, but still has family in her birth town in Mexico. Her father and his family are there as well as a couple of her aunts her mother’s side of the family. She has a fond memories of both places she lived while in Mexico, even though some are faded. Lopez would like to go back and visit; to show her children where she came from. But, the United States is home now since she has lived in the country for 38 years.
Now let’s fast forward to 2002, to when Luisa Merino started her journey.
Luisa Merino migrated to the United States on Aug. 28 2002 from Colombia. Merino came here by plane with a residents visa after a two-year waiting period. She came here to be with her now ex-husband who was born in Indiana. He was a born in the United States while his mother was working on an employment visa for three years.
Merino received her citizenship in April 2010, eight years after coming to the United States on a visa.
“To be [a] citizen it wasn’t harder, I got free help from lawyers through a Catholic Church, they did all the process, it was quick,” Merino said. “[It was] harder to study the 100 questions. And of course the interview, I got nervous.”
Merino came to the United States due to the economic and safety issues in Colombia that put her children in danger.
Even though Merino wanted to provide a safer environment for her children, her whole family is still in Colombia, whom she misses. She also misses the food and the music because she loves the taste and loves to dance.
Being a United States citizen is different for everyone and each individual has a different story to tell. Being an immigrant is no different than being born in the United States, especially since it is a country founded by immigrants. Immigration is not a political argument, but stories about individuals making decisions in order to change or better their lives.
