An oath of opportunity

30 new Americans sworn in as naturalized citizens Friday at Chavez Monument

Lucy Chege was born in the east African nation of Kenya, home to lions, elephants, rhinos, wildebeest migrations, and views of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro.

The Bakersfield resident still loves her homeland, but on Friday morning, she renounced any allegiance to her mother country as a condition of gaining citizenship to the United States of America.

Chege was joined by 29 other immigrants from nine nations around the globe in raising her right hand and swearing an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen ...” the 30 immigrants said as dozens of family members and friends listened.

Less than two minutes later, they concluded the oath with “... so help me God.”

“On behalf of the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services, we’re honored to welcome you as our newest citizens of the United States,” said W. Patrick Lujan, acting director of the Fresno Field Office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“I’d like to congratulate each and every one of you,” he said.

And with that, the crowd of well-wishers burst into cheers and applause for the 30 new Americans.

For Chege, the experience was a little bit surreal.

She first came to the United States in 2007 to get a university education, and ultimately earned a master’s degree in public health. She now lives and works in Bakersfield.

“I’m no longer a Kenyan.

It’s not an easy thing,” she said.

Throughout the history of the United States, immigrants have come to these shores for a variety of reasons — economic, political, familial — in search of a better life.

Most of the time, aspiring citizens in Kern County must travel to Fresno to participate in a naturalization ceremony.

But on Friday, Immigration Services held the event in the memorial garden at the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, nestled in the oak-dotted mountains east of Bakersfield.

The monument honors the legacy of labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez and the farm worker movement.

The National Park Service and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services maintain a formal partnership to enhance citizenship ceremonies by holding them in national parks throughout the country.

The agreement helps introduce new citizens to some of the nation’s most significant natural resources and cultural heritage sites. These sites provide an ideal backdrop for citizenship ceremonies, where new citizens can learn about and reflect on American identity and the responsibilities of citizenship, the National Park Service said in a news release.

Keynote speaker Andres Chavez, grandson of Cesar Chavez and executive director of the National Chavez Center in Keene, shared some of his own family’s history of immigration.

He said his great-grandparents came to the United States seeking opportunities they never would have been afforded in their native state of Chihuahua.

“They all believed, especially my Tata Cesar, that with great opportunity comes great obligations and responsibility,” he told the gathering.

His grandfather, Cesar Chavez, “was convinced that American citizenship is about more than taking an oath and waving the American flag,” he said.

“Citizenship is about empowering yourself and your community through participation,” Andres Chavez said, “by becoming fully informed, registering to vote and voting, and by exercising your right to advocate for the causes and principles you believe in, a sacred right guaranteed to you by the Constitution of the United States of America.”