Joaquin Arciaga Guzman, 102, now holds the record of being the oldest Filipino immigrant to become a United States citizen.
On Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) he was one of some 7,300 candidates from 120 countries who took their oath of citizenship at a naturalization ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California.
On Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) he was one of some 7,300 candidates from 120 countries who took their oath of citizenship at a naturalization ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California.
Joaquin Arciaga Guzman, 102, now holds the record of being the oldest Filipino immigrant to become a United States citizen. Getty Images/AFP
According to a report of the news site Pinoy Weekly on Thursday, Guzman came to the US as a youth in 1928 to pick lettuce and cabbage south of San Francisco.
He returned to the Philippines, married Paz Irene Gatchalian, before returning to the US. They had six children.
Guzman's wife and two adult children later went to the US in 1984 and became American citizens.
Guzman, however, did not immediately submit an application for citizenship, "for reasons that aren’t clear," the report said.
Los Angeles Daily News said Guzman’s wife Paz did not live to see her husband become a US citizen. She died in 2007 at the age of 89.
Citing US Citizenship and Immigration Services data, the Pinoy Weekly report said only 27 people older than 100 years old have become citizens in the past 50 years.
So far, Manik Bokchalian, who was 117 when she took the oath in 1997, holds the record of being the oldest immigrant to become a US citizen. - VVP, GMA News
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