For many, it would be hard to think of a more patriotic place to become an American than a baseball park.
Such was the reality for the more than 5,000 immigrants on Tuesday afternoon who, after a six-month naturalization process, became U.S. citizens in a ceremony at Fenway Park.
Judge Samantha Stoutenburg presided over the ceremony, which also featured Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Larry Lucchino, the president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox.
Thousands of immigrants celebrate citizenship at Fenway
Families and friends of the naturalized citizens filled the stands, waving hundreds of small American flags and rising to cheer as the announcer listed the foreign countries of all the applicants; Brazil seemed to get one of the louder applauses.
The baseball field temporarily acted as a U.S. federal court as the naturalization applicants from 151 different countries pledged to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America.”
“Each of you bring your own stories, histories and culture,” Lucchino said in a speech to the applicants during the ceremony. “This diversity of rich backgrounds makes us a stronger nation.”
Lucchino’s grandparents came to the United States from Italy during the 20th century.
One of the new citizens, Olga Tokmina of Kazakhstan, has been living in the United States for about 12 years. She moved to be with her husband and his family, and although the rest of her family remains in Kazakhstan, she enjoys living here.
“Maybe one day they will come too,” Tokmina said.
Cherlyn Karagul came to support her daughter Nancy Mathiew’s significant other, Georges Fleurme, who moved from Haiti in 1996. Karagul had also seen her husband’s naturalization in 2007 after he had moved from Turkey 10 years earlier.
“[The naturalization process has] worked for the two people [I know], and they’re both very proud to be American,” Karagul said.
Mathiew and Fleurme have a two-year-old son, who sat on his mother’s lap to watch. “We’re trying to explain “American’ to him,” Mathiew said.
Fatema Khalifa, who was naturalized in 1992, came to watch her husband. She moved from India in 1984 with her family.
“My parents were living here before we came, so they wanted the whole family to get a better life and education,” Khalifa said.
She has voted regularly since becoming a citizen and says that her husband, Salim, who moved from India in 2007, will too. She said that the naturalization process was important to her family, and helped them become more Americanized. Her ceremony, however, was smaller than this one.
“For me, it was a very personal experience,” Khalifa said.
The U.S. naturalization process requires most immigrants over the age of 18 to reside in the country for five years, to complete tests on English and civics and to finally take an oath, which the applicants recited during the ceremony.
Many of the speakers urged the new citizens to exercise their rights and responsibilities as Americans. Napolitano said during her speech that she hoped that they would vote, support American values and learn more about the country.
“You worked hard to be here,” Napolitano said. “You should be proud of this moment and this achievement. For all of you, it is a new chapter in your lives as Americans.”
Tuesday was the second naturalization ceremony in Fenway Park since 2008, when about 3,000 immigrants took the Oath of Naturalization.