Citizenship celebration ceremony held during Fresno's Hmong New Year

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The United States gained 100 new citizens on Friday afternoon in a first-of-its-kind ceremony.

This oath of citizenship was almost 30 years in the making for Gaby Gonzalez Lopez.

"It's been a very long, long, long process," said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez left Oaxaca, Mexico, as an infant and lived in the U.S. ever since.

She says the process of becoming an American citizen took about seven years and cost more than $1000.

Her naturalization was worth the wait and even featured a message from President Biden.

For the first time ever, they brought this citizenship ceremony to the Fresno Fairgrounds in the middle of the country's biggest Hmong cultural New Year celebration.

"Because we're dealing with a population that has gone through this and we still have more folks that need to know about it," said Cheri Cruz with the Fresno Center.

Cruz says the 100 new citizens sworn in Friday speak more than a dozen languages and represent 20 different cultures.

The Fresno Center helped get a lot of the new citizens across the finish line.

CEO Pao Yang is one of eight national ambassadors to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Fresno Center helps people from all cultures with housing, employment, and other resources, and its leaders aimed to get New Year's revelers to also focus on citizenship.

"The benefits of becoming a citizen is really a big part of what we're trying to accomplish here, but I think beyond that it's the pride and the joy of actually feeling a sense of belonging in this country," Cruz explained.

Gonzalez says she's hoping becoming a citizen will finally give her that sense of belonging.

She was raised here, but not as a citizen, which also meant she couldn't go back to Oaxaca.

"I don't feel like I'm from here nor from there because I can't bond on either side," Gonzalez said.

She said she put in the work to make life better for generations of her family.

"Mostly for my kids. And then because my grandparents," Gonzalez said. "They've worked so hard, especially since they were farmworkers. I was a farmworker as well, and it means a lot to all of us."

The first thing she wants to do as an American citizen is travel.

She'll go to Oaxaca and meet family members she's never seen in person.

Then, she can come back to her home, the United States.