Daughter Laura, Maria and son Luis, Jr.
Photo by Bea Paxson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn 2001, Maria Olga Guzman came to the United States with her husband and two children and, 11 years later, is a United States Citizen.\u00a0 Guzman passed the test April 4, 2012, and an official swearing-in ceremony will be held in Tampa, May 3, 2012.\u00a0 Guzman works part-time at the Lehigh Acres Kiwanis Thrift Store as the cashier, a part-time job she\u2019s held four years.<\/p>\n
Guzman has two children, Laura Jara, 21, and Luis Jara, Jr., 16. Guzman\u2019s husband, Luis Jara, Sr., 55, is away in Colombia at this time.<\/p>\n
Guzman was born in Colombia in 1959 and before coming to America, she worked at a children\u2019s hospital while trying to raise two very young children of her own.\u00a0 Living in Colombia was not always comfortable for Guzman, she explained, \u201cThere were lots of rebel groups even before we left.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Colombia had a problem with violence, where the murder rate was at a high point in 1999 with about 23,000 people killed because of the existent corruption and close to two million Colombians fled the country since.\u00a0 For Guzman\u2019s family, they were able to seek political asylum, thus obtaining their Green Cards until finally becoming U.S. Citizens.\u00a0 Guzman shared, \u201cIt was always my dream to become a U.S. Citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before moving to Lehigh Acres, the Guzman family lived in Fort Myers for six years.\u00a0 They purchased a house here not just because of its affordability, but also because, \u201cWe really like it here,\u201d Guzman said.<\/p>\n
Guzman\u2019s son, Luis Jara, Jr., has been in the United States since the age of five, speaks both English and Spanish fluently, and is a student at East Lee County High School.\u00a0 Back in October 2011, Guzman\u2019s husband, Luis Jara, Sr., would obtain his citizenship.\u00a0 Because their son is a minor at 16, Guzman\u2019s son would also get his citizenship.\u00a0 As for their daughter, Laura Jara, Guzman explained, \u201cWe had to go to court to get legal guardianship since Laura is older than 18 years.\u00a0 Because of her disability, they conducted a special test for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born with autism, Guzman\u2019s daughter sat quietly on the couch with a blanket laid across her lap. Laura Jara said plainly in Spanish, \u201cI want music.\u201d\u00a0 In the beginning of Laura\u2019s life, Guzman said, \u201cMy son helps me now, but when he was younger, it was much harder caring for Laura. So it was hard for me to study English because of the care my daughter needed.\u201d\u00a0 In Colombia, Guzman had help from family members since she has eight siblings (five sisters and three brothers).\u00a0 \u201cIn Colombia, I had much family to help, but here in the States, I only have my son.\u201d\u00a0 Guzman\u2019s husband has been in Columbia visiting with family he hasn\u2019t seen for 10 years.\u00a0 \u201cMy grandfather is sick and was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago,\u201d translated Luis, Jr., \u201cbut he\u2019s doing OK now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since they moved to America, Guzman\u2019s mother came to visit three times before her dying a year ago.\u00a0 Guzman\u2019s father died a long time ago, but Guzman still has a large family in Colombia, \u201cI have maybe 30 nephews and nieces now.\u201d\u00a0 When asked what her Columbian family thinks about her living in the United States, she said, \u201cThey\u2019re happy for me.\u201d\u00a0 Luis, Jr., said, \u201cWe try to go and see our family in Colombia during the summer time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Amigos en Cristo, Inc. (d\/b\/a\/ Amigos Center of Southwest Florida) was a huge help for Guzman.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a very nice place, they helped us so much,\u201d she continued, \u201cthe cost is very small.\u201d\u00a0 The Amigos Center offers family-based immigration and citizenship services giving families a safe and affordable way to take care of immigration needs.<\/p>\n
When asked how long she studied to take the test, she said, \u201cEvery day I listened to the CD in the car. Every day I write the questions, there were 100, but they only asked 10 at the test.\u201d\u00a0 The English test has three parts: writing, reading, and speaking.\u00a0 She went on to say, \u201cI read one question, write one question, and then answer everything else in English.\u201d\u00a0 For the reading requirement, Guzman had to read one out of three sentences correctly and for the writing portion, she had to write one of three sentences without error.\u00a0 The rest of the test would be conducted by a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (UCIS) Officer verbally.<\/p>\n
Guzman\u2019s hope for her children is a common hope most parents have, she said, in particular, \u201cFor my son, he needs to continue to study much and go to college.\u00a0 I want him to be a good person and have good customs.\u201d\u00a0 Jara, Jr., wants to be a business owner someday and said, \u201cI would like to be a CEO of a business someday.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0On a final note, he shared, \u201cI\u2019m very proud of my parents and I am happy we are here; it\u2019s a nicer place to live here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bea Paxson Special to the Gazette In 2001, Maria Olga Guzman came to the United States with her husband and two children and, 11 years later, is a United… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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