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Shaping the American Dream

In recognition of Caribbean American Heritage Month, which recognizes “the significance of Caribbean people and their descendants in the history and culture of the United States” (H.Con.Res.71), we are featuring naturalization records of three immigrants from the Caribbean.

First we have Abelardo Alvaro Rodriguez, born on February 19, 1918 in Havana, Cuba. He was a physician who came to the United States via Miami, Florida, in 1946. He was living in New York in 1946, and moved to Long Beach, California, several years later. Dr. Alvaro Rodriguez filed his petition for naturalization in Los Angeles and became a U.S. citizen in 1952.

Next is Ms. Pearl Lucille Smith, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 29, 1913, to Edgar Smith and Hilda Alves. Pearl came to the United States when she was just 8 years old. She filed her declaration of intention in 1941 when she was living in Hollywood, California, and working as a stenographer. In 1948, she became a U.S. citizen in Los Angeles.

Percival Harcourt Symonette is our third featured immigrant from the Caribbean. He was born on October 18, 1932, in the Bahamas. Percival came to the United States in 1952 and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1953. He married Betty Sue Bird of Kentucky in 1954, and they had a daughter, Karen, a year later. Mr. Symonette filed his petition for naturalization in Florida and then transferred the process to California and became a U.S. citizen in Los Angeles in December 1957.