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The route to U.S. citizenship
On a recent Wednesday evening, Cortes was helping her attentive adult students learn about the founding principles of this nation, finetune their testtaking skills, and prepare for interviews with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Department. Cortes volunteers for the job to pass on the generosity community members have shown to her. "I've been privileged to have the care, the love and the guidance of the people in Moorpark, so now I'm trying to return a little of what I received," she said. To be eligible for naturalization, an applicant must have lived in the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident for at least five years, be 18 or older with good character, be able to understand and speak basic English, possess an understanding of U.S. government and history, and be willing to take the oath of allegiance. Cortes' students receive oneon-one assistance in completing the numerous forms for the naturalization process. The local program began on March 22. The class meets twice a week from 5 to 7 p.m. at Community High School and is taught mostly in Spanish because all the participants are of Hispanic descent. "All my students pass the test," said Cortes as she prepared the day's lesson. The 15 students who participated in the entire session all passed the test on May 7. Now they have a passport and they're registered to vote, she said. "I don't accept any excuses," said Cortes, who dishes out a lot of homework and demands that her students attend every class even though most of them have full-time jobs and families to tend to. "Teresa is a good teacher. She provides all the information we need," said Salvador Tamayo, who's lived in Moorpark with his family for 22 years and works for a local pool supply distributor. "I want citizenship because I will get to vote," the father of two middle school students said. Although Claudia Morales has a three-year wait before she can apply for citizenship, she's taking the class to get a head start, she said. Morales works at Kavlico Corp. in Moorpark and also takes English classes at Moorpark College in preparation for naturalization. "I want to vote because one voice matters," she said. Certified by El Concilo Del Condado de Ventura to teach the citizenship program, instructor Cortes receives support from Moorpark Unified School District, which provides facilities for the class. "The citizenship program supports the district's efforts to educate and involve parents, which is a known correlate with improving student success in school," said district Superintendent Ellen Smith. Patricia Delacruz is proof of that. The mother of four, all born in the United States, has lived in Moorpark since 1991 and is taking the class because she wants to help shape the country's future. "I love this country," she said. The local mother learned about the citizenship program when she attended backtoschool night at Chaparral Middle School. Delacruz also attends Parent Project, another class taught by Cortes, which is geared to help parents of teenagers stay in control. That program is held at Community High School on Tuesdays during the school year. Cortes' day job is district Attendance Outreach Officer. She was selected for the position in the mid-'90s because of her long residency in Moorpark and her familiarity with the community, said school board member Ron LaGuardia. "Teresa strives to be a link between the district and families, especially those who are reluctant to communicate with the school," he said. Cortes expects parents to live up to their responsibilities, personally engaging and encouraging them to be involved in their children's education, Smith said. Teresa Cortez Teresa Cortes was born in Arizona and grew up in various convents in Mexico. "I was supposed to be a nun, but I discovered . . . my tongue could not stop, so that didn't work out," she said. She returned to the U.S. when she was 18 and was introduced to Cesar Chavez when her godmother took her to a rally for Latino farmworkers in Oxnard in the '70s. "That's when I realized that not everybody had a comfortable life like I had," Cortes said. She joined Chavez's mission to improve the quality of life for Latino immigrants in the U.S. Cortes has been volunteering in Moorpark since she moved to the community in 1979. After being a school volunteer for many years, she was hired in 1990 as a bilingual instructional aide for the Moorpark Unified School District and became Attendance Outreach Officer several years later. Cortes and her husband, Samuel, have been married for 31 years. They have a son, Steve, 29. |
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