Just because I love you guys....My MUM became a Citizen Today. Citizenship and the Presidency.

vaberella

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Fri Aug-21-09 05:41 PM
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Just because I love you guys....My MUM became a Citizen Today. Citizenship and the Presidency.

Woohoo!! :woohoo:

Just background note. I'm so excited for her. It took me about 6 years because my application fell in the processing during the time of 9/11----total mess. However it took my mum 4 months.

Just a bit of background. My mum came here with me when I almost 2 years old. During the ending of winter 1981 and the beginning of 1982 she came here from Haiti. I won't go into the details but contrary to most ideas on Haitians we weren't "boat people" nor did my mum get in by special passport or family ties. A visa was given, an American Airlines ticket and she was here---then she met my Step-Dad. He was the coolest Daddy on the planet.

She went to school here (just for perspective she had a BA in Haiti---and speak fluent Latin (what a nutter)), got remarried here, had my sister here (props to Brooklyn), and then became a Citizen. As a Haitian person it's actually normal for my family to be extremely political. You're highly sensitive to it in Haiti (and it's rarely hushed) and you're highly sensitive to it in the US. However, my dad never pushed her to get a citizenship and we never pushed it either. Shoot in my 29 years in the nation I didn't seek my citizenship until I was about 21. My dad gave us this sense that being a Citizen wasn't that big of a deal until---that wasn't until I wanted to vote and found out it was illegal for me.

It's quite interesting to think, when you're a teen you are either into getting your license (which I didn't care about---Living in NYC does that to you) or dating (not really a must since I went to All Girls Catholic schools and when you come from there men are lesser beings ^_^). Most of my friends didn't date unless it was their mums who put them in a dating pool. In any event...my care was getting my citizenship. But due to the fact my dad was alive my mum still didn't. Added to full time work, 2 kids, and other priorities taking over---especially someone for someone who only traveled to Haiti and had no interest in any where else since she had me.

But then we have President Obama running for President-- and although in Haiti having a Black-Haitian or White-Haitian or (Lebanese-descent)-Haitian President is nothing special as I'm sure you know. Haiti is also one of the few nations that has also had a woman President. Yeah...we did. While for many places these things are taboo or just unheard of---Haiti in it's "d-evolution" has done it all. However, during the last two years of the candidate Obama run to the Presidency the normally heightened levels of Political awareness I've seen in Haitians normally seemed to grow exponentially and my mum wasn't immune.

Both my sister and I are active in all things Politics, and I'm sure you can tell I love the subject. So I've always dealt with. My mum didn't start speaking out until the whole debacle with Bush. She was liked Clinton early on, but he wasn't enough of a push it seems; not only that there's also Haiti/US relations during his time which didn't help the cause. Actually I knew a lot of Haitians who turned away from Dem during that time (however my mum was just always Repub).

It wasn't until Bush and his actions or inactions I should say in Haiti, in '03 and also the fact of the needless war and the US. She's massively anti-war. That caused my mum to argue against Repubs in our home. That was a change. It was also interesting. My Dad was a lifelong Dem. Came here in 1963 and didn't vote Repub until 2004, that was the first time he EVER voted Republican---my dad was one of those moral freaks (my mum has no such hang up) who hated the idea of Clinton doing anything in the Oval office, that wasn't work related, and had problems with the Aristide support. That being said when growing up my mum supported Repub, my dad was a Dem and so I of course went the way of Independent because both were good at arguing their side. Then Obama came along and she saw promise and actually "hope." My dad would have loved Obama, unfortunately he had passed away by that time.

My mum who has always been a Republican (and I've come to see a lot of Caribbean people are just Repubs by nature---it's the whole idea of doing things yourself and not depending on the government----Haiti doesn't give you the luxury of depending on the government for anything), as I had stated, totally went Dem during the time of Bush and really liked the Obama support. She seemed upset she couldn't vote or even participate fully in the democratic system. Both my sister and I actually were regular poll workers (5 years active--until this year) in New York and so when we were able to jump into the political fray she had to step back and just talk to our family into voting or doing something because we needed change and liked what O had to bring to the table.

Anyway...After 8 years of Bush and his destruction of America and Obama's Presidency and what she sees as a slight change in racial issues in the US. Actually she wasn't supportive of Bush as the Republican candidate---she didn't want a Bush empire. As a note she's biracial and never really got the whole racism thing in the US since in Haiti there is no real racism as much as there is classicism and colourism (which make up a bulk of the social issues).

We got together, my sister and I and my mum (at this point my dad had passed away for several years) filled the form out in April and on August 22nd my mum completed everything and is now an American citizen. She's definitely Haitian, but after 27 years in the country she's paid her dues and loves this New York if nothing else. :D You know us New Yorkers there's this sense of Statehood Pride before anything else. :D We love America but not before New York. :rofl: It's our conceit and the fact we don't want to be too associated with the nutters from the South. :D

Anyway she's a Citizen today, I couldn't be there since I'm abroad currently. But all went well and I wanted to share a bit of her journey and the great news. We're such political lushes it's not funny. My sister (she's with me) and I sent her this massive Patriotic Edible arrangement.

If you're wondering when I say my mum was a Repub, it wasn't through monetary support or even politically in the party, however she would publicly push traditional Republican ideals. I remember when Michelle Bernard discussed this on her Tweety's show and I had to agree with her. A lot of Caribbean people seem to side Republican in many cases (or at least in our perspective).