Becoming U.S. citizen brings tears of joy
Ahime Ornelas is assistant principal at James Bowie Elementary. Her parents and two sisters also are U.S. citizens.
“I think I was in my third year of teaching at Travis Elementary. My sister also was teaching there. We had a great partnership. I taught reading and writing, and she taught math and science.
“One day we walked into a faculty meeting, and everybody starting yelling for us, ‘Yay, American citizens.’ My sister and I had received our citizenship letters around the same time. We didn’t know that our principal, Ms. Gongora, had ordered apple pie and American flags to help us celebrate. It was such a nice surprise. Oh, my gosh. I just started crying. And I remember the day that I officially became a citizen. There were tears of joy that day, too.
“I was born in Mexico, but I have lived in Baytown since I was about 6 years old. I didn’t really feel that I was Mexican because I had spent most of my life here. But growing up, I also knew that I wasn’t really American. So when the Star-Spangled Banner would play, I would think, that’s not my anthem. The first time I heard the national anthem after I had taken my oath of citizenship, that’s when I knew it was mine. That was a very emotional moment. Finally, you feel like you belong. That was a great day and an awesome experience. I have a photo and everything.”
— Ahime Ornelas
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