Seven-year-old Nael from Angola was happy, swinging his feet as he sat on a bench at the Children’s Museum of Denver.
“And my parents are happy,” he declared. “It’s just that I like people smiling, and I smile too.”
This wasn’t just a random visit to the museum. Nael, along with 47 other children from around the world — ages 3 to 14 — had a special mission that day: they were officially going to be recognized as citizens of the United States of America.
The day would mean reflecting on what it means to be an American, why it’s important to them, the dreams they want to accomplish here, and questions they have about the U.S.
But first, there was a lot to do.
The special naturalization ceremony, which was held July 20, meant reciting an oath to support and defend the constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
It meant applauding each country the children represented: Afghanistan, Angola, Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Qatar, Syria, Thailand and Ukraine.
It also meant reciting the pledge of allegiance.
Nine-year-old Elizabeth, from Nigeria, in a light blue dress, knew the pledge by heart.
“And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, individual (indivisible), with liberty and justice for all,” she said in a soft but clear voice.
Elizabeth beamed throughout the whole ceremony. Her dream is to be a pharmacist like her mother, and to have a child one day (maybe two). And she said, to be everything her mother is.
Elizabeth found the U.S. to be very different from what she thought would happen when she arrived here several years ago. She thought it would be difficult to make friends and that she would be “kind of lonely,” she said.
“That it'd be very hard to have my dream and be someone people can count on and trust.”
It didn’t turn out that way. She found it was easy to make friends.
“I can probably do everything I dreamed of doing,” Elizabeth said.
The freedom of movement that comes with being a US citizen is the biggest allure.
“One of the benefits to be an American citizen is to get permission to go anywhere you physically want. When I'm older, I’ll probably want to go to Canada, Russia and Asia. Like everywhere, really,” said 13-year-old Eyoas from Ethiopia.
And 8-year-old Manara from Iraq said becoming an American was key to her dream.
“It’s important to me because I want to travel when I grow up and become a YouTuber so I can make a lot of videos in other countries.”
Manara feels a sense of freedom and safety here to be who she wants to be.
“In Iraq there’s no electricity, it’s very dangerous there and we’re not safe there. Right here, we’re very safe.”
Soft-spoken 9-year-old Abdi, in a sharp suit, wants to be a businessman. He is from China but his parents’ roots are in Africa, where he’d like to visit his cousins one day. When I asked what was special about the U.S., he thought for a long while.
“The awesome places,” he answered, like the children’s museum where he received today’s certificate.
Questions about this big and complex country
A couple of things Eyoas doesn’t understand is people tell him because he was born in Ethiopia, he should have an Ethiopian accent. That doesn’t make sense to him because he’s been here several years. Something else that he doesn’t understand:
“Some people say that the USA is kinda bad and there’s some things wrong with it,” he said.
Eyoas said he knows about some violent and unjust history but in his opinion — so far in the short time he’s been here as he compares his previous and current life, “the U.S. is much better than they think. Like, I've never seen so many good things happen in one continent before, really.”
But even young Nael, 7, from Angola, already has a sense that this nation — whether it’s exceptional or ordinary, good or bad, or, like many nations, a roiling mixture of both — is complex and complicated.
One thing he likes about the U.S. is he said it’s a free country, which means “a country that doesn’t do war anymore.” Asked what’s something he doesn’t understand about his new country he asks:
“Why are there fights? And why are there mean people?”
He said he sees lots of people fighting — on TV, in school, on the street, everywhere. We talk for a while about mean people and that we don’t know all the reasons why they are mean.
“But does that mean you have to fight or be mean?” I asked him.
“Just love wins,” Nael replied calmly.
He said when he got his citizenship certificate, he felt love.
As the ceremony winds down, the school marching band from Bennett, Colorado, on the Eastern Plains keeps the celebration going with the 1961 classic, “Hey! Baby.” The brand-new citizens munch on cookies and pose for photos with their certificates.
“I feel very happy,” said Manara, the future Youtuber from Iraq. “I was very happy that I got my certificate and I was a U.S. citizen now.”
