New U.S. citizens become official at George Washington Carver birthplace

This story is published in partnership with Ozarks Alive, a cultural preservation project led by Kaitlyn McConnell.

DIAMOND — Black shoes and gold-hued sandals and slip-ons, high heels and more carried the feet, stories and hearts of nearly 60 people to rows of folding chairs where their lives would change. There they sat, mere minutes remaining in the journey of a lifetime and one often years in the making.

There they would become U.S. citizens.

"I feel very good," said an immigrant from Mexico. "I feel so happy because I waited for like 10 years to get citizenship."

The day was sunny, breezy and bright as applicants arrived, many with friends and family in tow, to gather beneath the white tent on the lawn of George Washington Carver National Monument.

As the clock ticked to 11:30 a.m., the first three rows found representatives from 29 countries sitting side by side. Most spoke different native languages, but were united by a common goal after, at least for some, years of work and hope.

"I have five boys in total, and three who are in the U.S. Army," said Aileen Bituin, who came to the United States from the Philippines to work as a nurse in 2005 and now lives near Waynesville. With a scarf likened to a U.S. flag draped around her neck, she and her son, Nobel Bituin, came to the ceremony to receive citizenship.

"We’re happy because all my grandchildren are American citizens, now all my children are American citizens, and we live here and we love the United States," she said.

"Now we are called Americans."

The location for the ceremony provided a full-circle contextual moment. Carver, born into slavery on the very same land where applicants stood, started his life without U.S. citizenship. He overcame many challenges in his life to ultimately become a scientist and gain notoriety for his research around peanuts (and many other products).

Mark Priebe, 49, was crushed by a vehicle on June 9, 2020, in the driver's deliberate attempt to harm him outside the Springfield Police Department.

While the circumstances of his life and those who now stand at his birthplace are in marked contrast, they share common elements: the hope of greater good, hard work and using individual power to make a difference.

"He spent 47 years at Tuskegee helping, as Carver phrased it, ‘the man farthest down’ to help himself through sustainable agriculture, education, faith and commitment to others," said James Heaney, superintendent of the Carver monument, as the ceremony began. "He worked to alleviate poverty, and hunger of the body, the mind and the soul. For these reasons, and more, Carver's birthplace was established as a national park in 1943. It is the first national park to honor an African American citizen.

"But today," Heaney told the new citizens, "we honor your experiences, your commitments and your dreams."

After seeing success in other places, Heaney advocated for naturalization ceremonies to be held at the Carver birthplace, he told Ozarks Alive before the event. It's the fourth time the event has been held at the park, and it alternates with Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. The ceremonies, held in national parks across the country, are possible through an agreement between U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the National Park Service that began in 2006.

"It's just a very moving occasion," he said. "These people have worked for years to become American citizens. And they’re there with their families, very excited. It's very emotionally charged."

Faces displaying a spectrum of color and age listened to Heaney's remarks at the ceremony, which were followed by an official opening of court and remarks from U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool, representatives of U.S. Senators Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, U.S. Congressman Eric Burlison, the Carver Birthplace Association, the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association, USCIS and Nicolas Olivares-Diaz, a naturalized citizen who was figuratively in the same spot as the soon-to-be-citizens just a few years ago.

"I would like to share a quote that I read around the time I was in the process of becoming a citizen in 2009," said Olivares-Diaz. "This is an American immigrant named George Mardikian. And he said, ‘You who have been born in America, I wish I could make you understand what it is like not to be an American — not to have been an American all your life — and then, suddenly with the words of a man in flowing robes, to be one, for that moment, and forever after.’

"Before I became a citizen in 2009, I could not find a way to express my feelings until I read that quote," Olivares-Diaz continued. "The words of it resonate in my head as they express the fear and the happiness of becoming an American citizen."

Then, alone and together, each applicant stood to speak: To share his or her name, and country of origin.

"I’m from India," "I’m from Mexico," and "I’m from Nepal," were just three of the places from where immigrants came to the Carver birthplace.

Of the 29 places represented, a few of the others included Bangladesh, Canada, Chile, China and Columbia. Norway, the Philippines, Romania, Russia and Ukraine (the latter two sat together) were also represented. There were those who struggled to stand, using walking canes and wheelchairs, alongside young people in their 20s.

They did not leave that heritage behind, but as they stood once more, they began a new layer of their lives by raising their hand and repeating these words:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely 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;

"That I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law;

"And that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

With those closing words, Harpool declared: "We have 56 new citizens of the United States," and cheers and applause unified the crowd. Bituin, adorned in her red, white and blue scarf, waved a small flag in her hand.

As local high school students sang "America the Beautiful," tears rolled down Aya Jones’ face. A native of Kazakhstan, the day marked a moment 16 years in the making.

"I love America," she said. "Why wouldn't I be happy?"

Kaitlyn McConnell is the founder of Ozarks Alive, a cultural preservation project through which she has documented the region's people, places and defining features since 2015. McConnell regularly shares her stories with readers of the Springfield Daily Citizen. Contact her at: [email protected] More by Kaitlyn McConnell More by Kaitlyn McConnell