Imagine taking an exam that will permanently alter the status of your life. Imagine that you’ve taken the classes, completed the homework, and invested hours of time studying for this test. Imagine that the exam is in a language that isn’t your own, and that a translator is forbidden.
Imagine having to sit down face to face with a government officer who questions you, repeatedly, in a language foreign from your own. Imagine that this is the only way to achieve a goal you’ve been striving for years to attain. Imagine.
This scenario is a reality for millions of individuals each year. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 20 million immigrants became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2014.
“It’s really nerve racking for most people,” said Vanessa Sandoval, director of immigration legal services, at the Services Immigrant Rights and Education Network, or SIREN, a nonprofit agency that provides immigration legal services in Santa Clara County.
In January, Gilroy and Morgan Hill libraries began offering U.S. citizenship classes to guide immigrants through this complicated process.
Jennifer Gagliardi, citizenship action coordinator for the Santa Clara County district, is the class instructor at both libraries.
“I think a lot of people have misconceptions about the citizenship interview,” Gagliardi said.
“During the interview they’re going to ask you the questions off your N400 [the naturalization application], so that could be anywhere from 20 to 70 questions. You’re going to read one sentence, and you’re going to write one dictated sentence [in English]. And then they’re going to ask you 10 questions and you have no idea what those questions are going to be.”
The citizenship classes are a great resource for Sandoval’s clients.
“To be able to work with other immigrants who are going through the same process, being able to practice the questions with them, and just being able to get that information about what to expect the day of the interview is really crucial. For a lot of people, one of the biggest obstacles is fear.”
When the March session began at Gilroy Library, Hollister resident Alejandro Guerrero, 40, and his brother-in-law, began attending the classes. His brother-in-law chose to drop the class, but that was not an option for Alejandro.
“I’m taking the classes to become a citizen, and have more opportunities, and to be able to be free,” he said. “I’m a legal alien, and I’m the only one in my family that is not a citizen.”
For a long time Alejandro had a misunderstanding when it came to U.S. citizenship.
“I didn’t want to lose my nationality, that was my thought at the time,” he said. But his thinking changed.
“Once I’m a citizen I’ll be like, OK, I’m free. Let’s do this. Think positive.”
Alejandro said his sons—Manual, 7, and Adrian, 3—were a big inspiration.
“I just hope for them a better future than I had.”
For Alejandro, along with his three siblings, Sylvia, Veronica, and Tino, their childhood began in Aguascalientes, Mexico. At age 9, Alejandro became the man of the house when his father, Jesus, moved away from his family to work on a farm in Hollister.
Over the next five years, Jesus would return to his family only two weeks each year. During those yearly visits, it wasn’t how time was spent with their father when he was home; it was simply having him home that mattered.
“As long as you were with him,” Alejandro said.
The journey north
Although Jesus regularly provided money to his family, and his mother, Preta, life was difficult for the Guerreros during those years.
But in 1990 Alejandro’s mother, Rogelia, made a surprising announcement.
“We’re going to Disneyland, just grab whatever you need for the trip,” she said. They were thrilled about seeing the “happiest place on Earth,” but had no idea about the grueling trip in front of them.
An hour later, the Guerreros gathered a few essentials, leaving everything else behind, and set off on their journey.
In the June heat they traveled by bus to Guadalajara, and then onto Tijuana. Alejandro and Tino sat at the back of the bus, their seats directly over the motor. The fumes, mixed with the stifling temperature of the bus, made their weeklong trip nearly unbearable.
“It was the worst bus trip I ever took in my life,” Alejandro said, adding, “We were desperate by the end.”
When they reached Tijuana, Rogelia called Jesus, who had no idea that his family had left Mexico. Jesus met up with them the following day and the family of six spent the night in a hotel room. It was the first opportunity in a week that the family had to take a shower.
Alejandro’s grandmother had funded the trip by saving the money her son had sent her.
Since his family had no visas, Jesus contacted a coyote, a person who illegally transports people across the border.
“If you come from a wealthy family you get a visa right away,” said Alejandro. “If you’re just a regular person, and you don’t have any money in the bank, it’s harder for you to get a visa.”
Jesus paid $1,000 per visa, after his family was delivered to him in Gonzales, just south of Salinas.
The final leg of the family’s journey, crossing from Tijuana into San Ysidro, was the most difficult. The Guerreros, along with 10 others, hid in a shack near the crossing point, waiting for the night border patrol’s shift change, their best opportunity to cross undetected.
“My mom told us not to make any noise, or something bad would happen to us.”
Once they’d crossed, the group walked nearly 15 miles in darkness through rocky terrain and rivers.
“When we crossed the river, we were told to tuck ourselves down because there were some cholos [gang members], who looked for illegal immigrants to rape them, and take all their money away, and their women,” Alejandro said.
Crossing completed
Safely across the border the group made it to a one-room stash house in San Ysidro.
“We waited there until the morning when the van came. We were like sardines. They told us not to move, to lay down flat on the floor,” Alejandro recalls.
The next morning the group was back in the van. Their first stop was Los Angeles, where they were offered a meal break.
“For the first time I tasted fried chicken. We were hungry, so it tasted like glory,” Alejandro said, smiling.
Hours later the Guerreros arrived in Gonzales.
“My dad was already there waiting, with money in hand.”
For the next week the Guerrero family stayed in a rented one-room house. The following week they moved into a two-room house.
“Then came reality,” Alejandro said.
“They told us we were going to start working in the apricot fields during the summer, to make money. We did it for about four weeks.”
When the job ended, it was time to start school.
“It was hard because you know you’re not used to this kind of environment. I was doing 50 miles an hour, and they were doing 120 miles an hour,” Alejandro said. “I was frustrated, and at the time, I wasn’t speaking very good English.”
Today his English is nearly perfect and Alejandro is back in school. By the time he completes the naturalization process, before the end of September, he will have earned the right to participate in his first presidential election.
