Still a Land of Dreams : Undeterred by L.A.’s Problems, 5,500 Become Citizens in Mass Ceremony

They sat in a cavernous hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday, raptly watching video images of an America many of them have never seen firsthand.

As they were shown panoramic views of spacious skies and squinting, back-lit farmers from sea to shining sea, they clutched tiny American flags. Some watched with tears welling in their eyes.

There were no scenes of homeless families sleeping in doorways or laid-off workers staring at pink slips, and certainly no cities engulfed in flames. But that did not matter to most of those in the crowd. They were there to lay claim to the positive promises of the American dream.

For the second time since the April riots, the local office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service conferred citizenship upon thousands of immigrants in a mass ceremony so large it had to be done in shifts. In all, 5,500 immigrants pledged allegiance to the United States in the city that--according to a Census Bureau report this week--has more foreign-born residents than any other in the country.

From 40,000 to 50,000 of them are naturalized each year in Los Angeles, according to immigration officials. At the next mass swearing-in in September, they expect to give the oath of citizenship to 9,000 people. On Friday, the largest contingent (803) was from the Philippines. Vietnam (705) was second and China (569) third.

The new citizens acknowledged that Los Angeles has many problems, but not even the recent riots caused them to consider returning home.

Hector Diaz, a San Fernando Valley aerospace machinist who arrived from Mexico City 16 years ago, said the riots were a “human mistake” whose underlying causes eventually can be fixed. Becoming an American remained “the dream of my life,” he said.

Like Diaz, many of those who took the oath of citizenship are not strangers here. They arrived years ago to attend school, to work, to join family members or to escape strife in their native lands.

Some said they struggled years ago through culture shock or shattered images.

Doreen Wobil, 37, a native of the West African nation of Ghana, said she was taken aback by the discrimination she found against blacks when she arrived in Los Angeles seven years ago to join her sister. “I never felt racism at home,” said Wobil, a nurse who lives in Fontana.

The rioting, she said, “shows how frustrated some people are” by social ills.

“I would like to see something done about these things,” she said, but added quickly, “I would prefer to be here than there.”

Behzad Saleh, a Jewish native of Iran, said he was taunted about his religion for the first time in the United States, not in Iran, which is an Islamic state.

“In this country there are all kinds of people, and that is good, but there are exceptions to the good,” said the 30-year-old tutor who has been in the United States 13 years.

Gloria Chen, a homemaker and mother of three from Huntington Beach, said she was driven to Southern California by the specter of the takeover of her native Taiwan by the People’s Republic of China. She has never regretted coming, she said, even as she sat in her home and watched Los Angeles burn on television.

Patrick Cooper, 35, a native of France, also said he had no regrets.

Cooper, who writes subtitles for American movies exported overseas and who has been in this country 14 years, said he was “very much” disappointed by the way the court system handled the case against the four police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King.

But “this is home,” Cooper said adamantly. “This is home.”