Jesus Moran-Alvarez of Santa Maria, Calif., shook hands with Vice President Joe Biden during his naturalization ceremony in Baghdad July 4, 2009. "I'm a U.S. citizen," Moran-Alvarez said. "I'm proud as heck to say so."
(ABCNEWS.com)
"My whole life growing up I thought that I was already a citizen. I didn't realize that [I wasn't] until my older teenage years," says the Army specialist who works as a paralegal.
From the Seattle area, Mose has helped other soldiers prepare their packets for citizenship and realized she could do the same for herself. About a half dozen of her "clients" took part in the same ceremony.
Like so many, Mose looks forward to the right to vote, which so many Americans don't use.
"They don't exercise the rights and the privileges we can only dream of most of our lives," she says.
Moran-Alvarez is almost angry about apathy of his now-fellow countrymen.
"A lot of people have it and they choose not to vote. But they choose to complain about the things going on in our country," he says. "That's your way of making a difference. Take advantage. We're fighting to get that."
Biden pointed the diversity in the crowd.
"Every hue," he said. "You represent what America has always stood for: freedom, strength, resolve, but also the remarkable, remarkable diversity we represent."
Of those taking the oath, 50 are from Mexico, 18 from the Philippines and 12 from Iraq.
David Martinez is driving a HUMVEE here in Iraq. His family lives near Fresno, Calif. He didn't join the military to get his citizenship; he just sees it as a great fringe benefit. He's happy to finally have the official document.
"It means everything now. Defending the constitution, I've been to Iraq, I'm an American," says the soldier who may one day go into the corrections field.
Moran-Alvarez says now it's only his mother who doesn't have her citizenship and he will have to give her a nudge.
"Yes I was a Mexican. I take a lot of pride in that," he says. "But I've lived my whole life, damn near, in the United States and I can finally be, I am finally part of it, versus just in it."
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