New Americans honored at event in Georgetown

Jessica Simaj and Silvia Pabon-Carrillo traveled much different paths to American citizenship. Simaj came as a teenager from Guatemala to escape an abusive home. Pabon-Carrillo left Costa Rica to seek a better life. 

Simaj and Pabon-Carrillo told of their experiences March 14 at the third annual Citizenship Celebration hosted by La Esperanza at the Owens Campus of Delaware Technical Community College in Georgetown.

“I feel very happy, grateful,” said Simaj, 26, of Seaford. “I can vote now. I can be a part of the activities that the state provides. I continue taking care of my daughter, and I’m not afraid anymore. I feel more secure with my daughter, and I want to keep studying to have a better future.”

“It was always my dream to come to the United States of America,” said Pabon-Carrillo, 44, who arrived in 2004 with a J1 visa through the Au Pair in America program to care for children of a family in the United States.

The March 14 event was open to any resident in the area served by La Esperanza who received citizenship since last year’s celebration, and 26 attended, said Bryant Garcia, executive director of the organization. La Esperanza has evolved into a multi-service nonprofit focused on building empowerment among Latinos and immigrant families in Southern Delaware, according to its website.

Between 150 and 200 people were in attendance, including the governor, lieutenant governor, and state and local officials. 

Gov. Matt Meyer congratulated the new citizens, first in the Spanish he learned in Guatemala about 1998 through the Teach for America program. He said he lived with a local family in Huehuetenango for three months to learn the language at the recommendation of his students when he worked as a public school math teacher before entering politics. 

“I think I can say this, you passed a test that most Americans probably can’t pass,” Meyer said. “You passed a test to become an American, and you’re now one of us. Now, it’s your role, just as it’s my role, to welcome people here … It’s all of our responsibility to make sure that we take care of each other and that we work to support each other as we all try to realize our own American dream.”

Simaj said she left a broken and abusive home when she was 15 to live with one of her three sisters in West Palm Beach, Fla. A year later, she moved to Laurel to stay with another sister. At the advice of an employee at her high school, she began the process of becoming an American citizen. Simaj became a citizen March 6.

“First, I want to give thank you to God to become U.S. citizen with help of La Esperanza,” Simaj said. “And firmly I believe they are a big blessing to the Latino community.”

While working for a family, Pabon-Carrillo wanted to remain in the United States.

“I decided to stay in the U.S. because there were more opportunities,” she said. “I wanted my independence.”

Pabon-Carrillo’s journey to citizenship was interrupted while she cared for her children and her husband, an American citizen born in Puerto Rico who was injured in combat serving in the military.

That led her to a career as an advocate for veterans and their families, coordinating the work of caregivers who assist them. In 2020, she was named a fellow with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, representing caregivers.

“All the time, I worried that I was not safe and secure with only my permanent residency. I feared being deported and leaving my family behind,” Pabon-Carrillo said. 

So she went to La Esperanza for assistance with the naturalization application.

“When I got my citizenship, standing there in the ceremony, I felt so proud of who I am and where my family and I are in this moment, and how La Esperanza prepared me for that moment,” she said. “Now that I am a citizen, I feel good. I see my kids relieved of the ‘what-ifs.’”