Fernando Valenzuela Quietly Affirms His Status as a U.S. Citizen

New York Times

By Jill Painter Lopez

August 30, 2015

Fernando Valenzuela Quietly Affirms His Status as a U.S. Citizen 

Fernando Valenzuela recently held his right hand over his heart and clutched an American flag in his left hand, the same one that used to fire screwballs past major league batters.

The photograph of the moment spoke for itself: Valenzuela, the chunky boy from Mexico who once set baseball on its head, was now a United States citizen.

With his quirky look-to-sky delivery, Valenzuela became a baseball rock star in the early 1980s, with Fernandomania capturing the attention not only of Los Angeles, but also much of the country.

All these years later, against a backdrop of impassioned political debate about immigration, Valenzuela was one of 8,000 people who, on July 22, took the oath of allegiance in a naturalization ceremony at this city’s convention center, three and a half miles from where he worked his magic at Dodger Stadium.

So why now?

Valenzuela, 54, has declined to discuss what motivated him.

Although he works as a Spanish-language broadcaster for Dodgers games, he rarely does interviews and, outside calling games, keeps a low media profile. He doesn’t have a Twitter account, he hasn’t written an autobiography and he declined to take part in a news conference about his new status or to do any interviews, including one for this article.

But if the motivations of other residents are a guide, the explanation could be the right to vote, legal protections against deportation and a sense of officially belonging to a community he has lived in for the last 35 years. Legal residents who have lived in the country for five years are eligible, so it has been assumed Valenzuela could have made the move years ago, but many Mexican residents do not.

Nearly two-thirds of the 5.4 million Mexican legal residents in the country who are eligible for citizenship have not taken that step, according to the Pew Research Center, a sign of how fraught such a decision is for many people. In surveys, they cite lack of English proficiency, apprehension about the cost of the process (nearly $700) and simple lack of interest.

Immigration advocates are pushing for more Mexican residents to get their citizenship, and they believe Valenzuela’s move, covered in Spanish-language media, will encourage others. One group plans to ask him to participate in such a drive next month.

“There’s a sense in this country right now that if you haven’t taken full advantage of citizenship, that our community is not as respected or paid attention to,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, known as Chirla, which plans to ask Valenzuela to participate in a citizenship day event Sept. 17. “I don’t know why he did it, but when I did it, I knew I wanted to have a voice in the community.”

Salas, 44, is from Mexico and moved here as a child with her immigrant parents. She became a American citizen in 2008.

Salas was outside the convention center the day Valenzuela became a citizen. She and 30 volunteers from Chirla were available to help newly anointed citizens register to vote.

Jose Huizar, a Los Angeles city councilman who was born in Mexico and became an American citizen while in college, said that Valenzuela’s legend still resonated strongly and that his move would generate “such a loud message to other Mexicans that there is value in becoming a U.S. citizen.”

Valenzuela was a teenager when he made his major league debut for the Dodgers in 1980, pitching in 10 games in relief. The next season, he completed and won his first eight games, five of them shutouts, and ended up becoming the first player to win the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards in the same season. He also won Game 3 of the World Series as the Dodgers rallied to beat the Yankees in six games.

Valenzuela spent a decade with the Dodgers before playing with five other teams and then retiring in 1997. His career credits included a no-hitter against St. Louis in 1990, six All-Star team selections and two World Series championship rings. He remains immensely popular in Los Angeles and during an Aug. 10 game was honored with a commemorative Cy Young Award pin giveaway. On Sept. 16, the Dodgers will be giving out the fifth Valenzuela bobblehead.

Valenzuela arrived in the United States not knowing any English. The Dodgers used Jaime Jarrin, the longtime Spanish-language broadcaster, as his interpreter. The two later worked together on Dodgers radio broadcasts for 12 years before Valenzuela moved to the television booth this season.

“It didn’t surprise me he didn’t want to make a big deal of this,” Jarrin said when asked about Valenzuela’s becoming an American citizen. “He likes his privacy very much. He takes care of that privacy very well. He loves his family and likes to protect his family. He’s a solid citizen.”

Peter O’Malley, the president and owner of the Dodgers when Valenzuela came on the scene, said it was “extraordinary” that Valenzuela had deepened his status in the United States. “He’s lived here and raised his family here and enjoyed living here,” O’Malley said. “He’s proud, and I salute him for it.”

So is Manager Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels, a friend who was Valenzuela’s catcher with the Dodgers.

“I think the pride he has for the opportunity he had to play major league baseball and for everything he’s established here in the U.S. is important to him,” Scioscia said, “but it will never replace the pride he has for his native country of Mexico.”

At the end of games, Valenzuela will chat with other broadcasters while waiting for the traffic to clear outside Dodger Stadium. Polo Ascencio, 40, who works for the Dodgers as a statistician, is often part of those conversations. He grew up in Tijuana and four years ago became an American citizen.

“I grew up idolizing this guy,” Ascencio said. “I wanted to be a left-handed pitcher. I was that kid who was a Padres fan but turned into a Dodgers fan” because of Valenzuela.

“I looked just like him,” he said.

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