17 become citizens in naturalization ceremony
Ana Macrae, a native of Peru, got the best birthday present ever on Thursday.
She became a citizen of the United States.
Macrae, of Bozeman, and 16 others from 14 countries gathered at the James F. Battin Federal Courthouse in Billings to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. The oath was administered by Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull.
Macrae was joined at the naturalization ceremony by her husband, Andrew, and their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Ariana.
“I was telling her today, ‘Mommy is going to get her citizenship. She’s from Peru but from today on, she’ll be a citizen,’ ” Macrae said before the ceremony.
The little girl sat on her mother’s lap throughout the 45-minute ceremony.
Macrae arrived in the U.S. 12 years ago as part of a student exchange work program at Big Sky. She applied for and was granted a visa extension.
Macrae first volunteered and then was hired to teach Spanish at Monforton School west of Bozeman and at Middle Creek Montessori in Bozeman.
She now owns a boutique there called Cosmica, where she sells women’s clothing imported from around the world.
Macrae met her husband, a paragliding instructor, three years after she came to Bozeman, and the couple married nine years ago. As if to cement her patriotic roots, Macrae is expecting her second child on the Fourth of July.
She said the process to become a U.S. citizen was a long one, but worth it.
“It’s very special,” Macrae said. “It’s something I’ve wanted for so long. I feel free. I’ll be able to vote and I’ll be able to know my mom and my sisters can visit.”
Macrae said she also knows she has an official place in this country.
“I’m an American today, on my birthday,” she said.
The ceremony in the fifth-floor Snowy Mountains courtroom included patriotic songs by the Senior High Honor Choir, under the direction of Daren Small, and letters of welcome read by representatives of Montana’s congressional delegation.
Family and friends crowded into the courtroom, shooting video and snapping photos of smiling faces. After the 17 newly minted citizens took the oath of allegiance, they stepped forward one at a time to accept certificates and congratulatory handshakes.
Each also was handed a small American flag by members of the Shining Mountain Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Cebull, in a brief talk, welcomed the new citizens and congratulated them. He told them that his grandparents on both sides of his family were immigrants.
He emphasized a couple of rights that citizens of the United States enjoy, including the freedom of speech and the freedom to vote. He urged them to register to vote and to exercise that right.
Cebull also encouraged them to serve if they are called for jury duty. And he suggested they take the opportunity, if it arose, to thank members of the military or veterans for defending the country’s freedoms.
Cebull acknowledged that the U.S. has problems, but he added that those who took the oath on Thursday could become their new country's problem-solvers.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to be a better country for you folks becoming citizens,” he said.
Andrew Raduly, a native of Hungary who lives in Roundup with his wife, Judith, came as a tourist to the United States in 1999. He ended up staying to go to school to get a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in theology.
Now Raduly works as a pastor at a trio of Seventh Day Adventist churches in Billings, Lewistown and Roundup. He also serves as a police chaplain in Billings.
Having grown up in a Communist country, Raduly said, he appreciates the rights that Cebull talked about.
“We didn’t have freedoms that sometimes Americans take for granted,” he said.
As a fifth-grader, Raduly looked at a map of the United States and decided that someday he would immigrate to this country.
“This is the day when my dream came true,” he said.