Hector Herrera and his wife recently sat in the US consulate in Montreal, watching the other soon-to-be citizens with their laps full of folders and documents, all quietly waiting for their chosen identity to become fully legal. Many were dressed up. It's a grave, important moment.
He began life in Mexico, lived in Canada, and will soon make his home in the US. He's lived with different assumptions about responsibility, speech, the role of the state. He sorted out what he thinks is right . . and made a reasoned decision to become an American citizen.
People are allowed here to try, to fail, to try and fail again, and eventually learn how to succeed. "It builds grit. It builds anti-fragility. It builds citizens who are not waiting to be rescued."
"Over the past decade," he says, "I have slowly transformed into an Americanist."
What does he mean by that? How did America earn his respect?
from Substack
(cont'd tomorrow)
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