First Lady honors César Chávez at a naturalization ceremony in Keene
Three days before what would have been César Chávez’s 95th birthday, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden honored the civil rights and farm labor leader at a naturalization ceremony at the National Chávez Center Monday morning where Chávez lived and labored in Keene, part of the 187-acre property in the Tehachapi Mountains east of Bakersfield in Kern County.
“It’s an honor to be joined by so many members of the Chávez family here today,” said the First Lady.
Biden shared her great grandparents’ immigrant story and journey to America from Italy bringing their values loyalty, generosity, kindness and joy across the Atlantic Ocean.
“And those values are what they taught to their son, my grandpa Dominic, who grew up to deliver furniture for a small store in southern New Jersey, working hard to build a life that he could be proud of,” said Biden, adding that her father raised her and her sisters to “believe that in America anything is possible”
Biden said her great grandparents’ immigrant story is a common story and it’s an American story.
“Geography doesn’t define this country,” she said, adding that language, race or religion doesn’t “define us.”
“America is and has always been defined by us, now you, we the people, with varied backgrounds and beliefs as different as the day is long,” Biden said. “Each of us makes our nation and remakes it in big ways and small ones.”
“We are millions of individuals that add up to something so much bigger than any one of us,” she said. “It’s an idea that is both simple and revolutionary enough to change the course of history.”
“As many of you may know, in just a few days, we will celebrate César Chávez Day,” said Biden, who last year participated in a mass farmworker vaccination clinic at “Forty Acres” near Delano, the United Farm Workers’ headquarters before Chavez moved it to Keene in 1971.
Biden said she was also “excited to honor a woman who has taken up his legacy, Teresa Romero,” who is the current UFW president. Romero, an immigrant and naturalized citizen herself, received the Outstanding American by Choice national award during the ceremony.
Representing nine countries including Egypt, El Salvador, India, México, the Philippines, Yemen, Perú, Russia and Israel, 31 immigrants took oath as new U.S. citizens during the naturalization ceremony held in observance of César Chávez Day in the 17,000-square-foot, mission-style structure now called Villa La Paz.
Approximately 808,000 people were naturalized in fiscal year 2021.
Biden told the new citizens that many of them had faced persecution and exploitation, left behind destruction and traveled miles for a better life and at the same time have had to make sacrifices to adapt.
But their values that brought them this far “have only been strengthened by this journey,” she said.
“Today, we’re not just Americans. You are Americans by choice. And like so many generations of immigrants who have come before you, you will shape our country to be stronger, more unique and more beautiful,” Biden said. “We are grateful to welcome you today. And we are proud to call you our country men and women.”
“So, to all of you, from our president and from me congratulations,” Biden said.
Ur M. Jaddou, immigration services director, administered the Oath of Allegiance to the new citizens and presented Romero the award.
One of the new citizens was Claudia Marcela Campos, a UFW Foundation member from Bakersfield whose husband is a farmworker.
Campos couldn’t find the words to express her excitement and emotions of becoming a citizen, getting her naturalization certificate, shaking the First Lady’s hand and hearing her name as Jaddou mentioned Campos name during her remarks.
“I didn’t know this was going to happen,” said 38-year-old Campos, who was born in a small town in Michoacán, México. “It was really exciting.”
Campos came to the U.S. when she was about 12 or 13 years old, arriving in Los Ángeles in the mid 1990s. Later, she moved with her sister to Bakersfield and worked in the fields too and then at fast food restaurants, working nights while studying for her high school diploma in the mornings.
As a new citizen, Campos said she is looking forward to “use my voice. Being an active citizen, being able to vote for what I believe.”
César Chávez Foundation President Paul F. Chávez, who also delivered remarks, said it’s become a tradition now that the Citizenship and Immigration Service will hold ceremonies twice a year.
“One around my father’s birthday and the other around the dedication of the monument in October,” Chávez said. “We’ve done a number of them and each of them is more special than the past.”
Chávez said the First Lady is “an inspiration to all of us” and her visit on a memorable occasion for the newest American citizens was “really fitting.”
“My father, he fought his life so that people would have opportunities, that they could offer a better life to their children,” he said, adding that while they commemorate his 95th birthday, events like today “where you have you have ceremonies that will change the course of a family’s history forever, is the most meaningful way to honor” his father.
Esta historia fue publicada originalmente el 28 de marzo de 2022, 6:23 p. m..
