July 4th

 Not really sure what to write today.

Tomorrow is the fourth of July.  I can remember three fourth of July's in  particular in my mind.  The first one is July 4, 1976.  The other was on July 4th 1978.  The last one was once when we went to the Epcot Center for the second time and watched a huge fireworks show. I do not remember the exact year.  

On July 4, 1976 I became a citizen on the United States.  I began working towards it when I  had to do a paper for Mr. Koziol in 1975, our senior year in high school. I did it  to kill two birds with one stone.  I had to write a paper and I needed to find out how the citizenship papers were filed so I came up with a paper entitled "becoming a citizen of the United States".  I cannot remember at all the paper but it did get me to file.  At some point someone from the Social Security Office interviewed me.  In my case it may have been a little different. Teresa was already working for the social security office.  I remember because Teresa ran the interview and I made the decision to change my name to Lopez de la Vega, rather than my legal name previously which was Lopez.  Once you become a citizen you can change your name for free.  Lopez de la Vega was my original name but it was changed once I landed here on November 1965.  I am not sure why my name was changed to just Lopez but it was.  I remember Teresa was already working at the social security office and she handled the name change etc...  Teresa did not like that I was changing my name. I should not say she did not like it but she was worried about other things that might occur due to the name change.  I only did it since the name Lopez was so common that I thought it was best to change it to Lopez de la Vega.   Around half of us did change it.  In the end, Teresa changed hers also many years later since there was a person who had her same name and the social security differred in only the last two numbers and was a criminal of some type.  Teresa was almost arrested once because of that issue.  

On that day mom and I had to go to a ceremony since we were both becoming Citizens of the United States. I remember being unsure of whether to go through with it or not.  I was proud and still I am proud of my heritage.  I had never really wanted to become a citizen of the United States.  In part that was because dad did not want to do it either.  The reason I did become a citizen is that I had heard that there were numerous scholarships that would only be availalbe to us if we were citizens.  However, I cannot remember which ones they were.  They may have been either the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant or one which was sponsored by the state of florida, I believe it was the State of Florida Assistant Grant. I may be wrong.  It would not make that much of a difference in the beginning of my college career.  But it may make a difference later, and it did.  I decided it was best for me to go through with it and become a citizen.  This was literally the only reason I did this.  

The ceremony was not extravagant, but I felt I was in a different place.  Only mom and I attended the ceremony, I am not really sure why.  Since mine occurred on the bicentennial, it was kind of a big deal.  There were ceremonies all through the United States.  I believed there was one in the orange bowl but I looked it up and did not find it.  I was with mom at the Miami Beach Convention Center.   Halfway through the ceremony I could tell mom was sad.  She may even have been crying.  I never asked her why. I knew.  It was the drummer.  There was a drummer in a band that was playing.  He was a very enthusiastic drummer.  Sometimes his bandmates would have to tell him to take it easy.  And, he looked more than a little like my own brother, Robert.  He did not remind me of Robert, but when I saw my mom crying, he did.  This was only 7 months afterwards.  I never spoke to her about it, in fact I pretended not to notice, but it was obvious. I love my mom. 

The second fourth of July I remember was in 1978.  Lourdes and I began going out approximately May 27, 1978.  I say approximately because that is what I and Lourdes determined at that time.  I am not actually sure that was the date.  It is our best estimate.  We had been going dancing and getting to know each other all summer going out with mostly with Maria and Victor and Fabio and Marlene.   I am not sure if Fabio and Marlene had gone on the picnic. We decided to go to TY park in Broward County.    We actually had a great time.