ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Janeth Vazquez has been teaching citizenship classes to many local immigrants to help them become American citizens for several years.
Among the people she has taught was her mother, Beatriz Cuellar, in 2021, and now, Vazquez has taught her boyfriend citizenship, as Nestor Castillo officially became an American citizen recently.
Castillo was born in Mexico, moving to America with his family at the age of 9, and he has two daughters and has worked at Liberal’s National Beef for about five years. He said becoming a U.S. citizen was something he did more for his children than anything else.
“Going back to Mexico would be a little difficult with me because I have two daughters,” she said. “I’d rather be with them. I would try do whatever I can to be with my daughters, not let them down, and have a better future with them.”
Becoming a citizen is something Castillo simply called different.
“It felt pretty good,” he said. “I’ve never been that excited. I was really excited even though I didn’t show it.”
Castillo said he did feel Vazquez treated him a little differently than other students.
“She would get on me because I wouldn’t pay attention, but she helped me a lot,” he said.
“He was always in trouble,” Vazquez said jokingly.
Naturally, Castillo was nervous about taking the test, but he said that nervousness quickly left once he started the test.
“After a certain time, it goes away,” he said. “I put myself with God and said everything will be good. I felt better after that.”
Vazquez said teaching Castillo citizenship was even a little different than teaching her mother, as this time, it was on a more personal level.
“He’s my boyfriend, but he was probably one of my most difficult students,” she said. “Maybe because I know him on a personal level, I got onto him more, and I had higher expectations of him. I was a more strict teacher. I made him study consistently.”
Vazquez, who also works as the marketing director at Southwest Medical Center, did say she would remind Castillo multiple times a day to do his homework.
“I would be at work, and I would e-mail or text him and say, ‘Are you studying?’” she said. “Honestly, the last two weeks, it was constant. Even on the way up there, he had to study three and a half hours. The morning of the test, we woke up early to study again. Because of the relationship, I had higher expectations. I was probably overly strict with him.”
Vazquez said she likes to do everything within her ability and use her knowledge and skills to help other people.
“For me, it was just bringing my skills and tools and everything I could do to help the people closest to me,” she said. “I like to help everyone in my community, but more particularly, I’m going to put on a higher priority the people who are closest to me and I love.”
Vazquez said seeing all of her students pass their citizenship test is emotional, but the emotional scale rises to a much more meaningful level when the student is in a close relationship such as that of a boyfriend. She did say, though, she was happy with Castillo’s recent success.
However, one of Vazquez’s students recently passed away from cancer, and her emotions naturally have gotten a little stronger.
“She’s on her last days,” she said in an October interview. “She’s in hospice care already. I went to visit her, and she’s been unresponsive for the last five days, but after she heard my voice, she teared up. She touched my hand, and right next to her bed, she had her little flag of when she passed her citizenship test.”
Vazquez said passing the citizenship test is a big step for many.
“For some, it may be a simple word like your citizenship, but for many people who have gone through the process, this is a moment they’ve been waiting for their entire life,” she said. “This is a moment they’ve been working hard toward because it provides them stability and a secure future. You have so much uncertainty in your life until you take this big step and become a citizen. At that point, you know you have a secure future in the United States.”
Vazquez was both happy and excited as she saw Castillo both take the test and pass it.
“I felt like I was taking the test to be honest,” she said. “I even told him ‘You can’t go without me. I have to go.’ If I could’ve gone in to take the test, I probably would’ve. I was really excited for him. I was trying to get him to ease his mind. Like any other person, he was a little nervous, but once he met the officers, all his anxiety and nervousness went out the window.”
After passing the test, Castillo said he plans to go back to school and start a career for both himself and his daughters. As for Vazquez, she plans to take a break from teaching citizenship classes, but she does plan to go back.
“I’m still helping a lot of people in my community regardless of whether or not I’m actively teaching the classes,” she said. “I still have a lot of people looking for me, asking me for material or what they can do to prepare for the test. It’s exciting. The next step for him is he will be going to vote with me for the first time. That’s something I did with my mom too. It’s rewarding being part of other people’s journeys like this.”
