Southern California's dual citizens see little conflict

Salvador Gomez Gochez was 25 when he first came to Los Angeles with $3 in his pocket and painful memories of his Salvadoran homeland torn apart by repression and war.

Working his way up from a parking lot attendant to a manager, he learned English, bought a home, volunteered for a Salvadoran community organization and became a U.S. citizen, grateful to the country he says saved his life.

But Gomez Gochez, now 54, also retained his Salvadoran citizenship. Now, as a dual citizen, he has made the dramatic decision to return to his impoverished hometown in El Salvador and run for mayor after nearly three decades away. His hope: to revive his town's agricultural base with his U.S. contacts and empower the villagers with U.S. practices of participatory democracy.

"America is the country that gave me the opportunity to be alive, and I'll be loyal to it until the end of my life," said Gomez Gochez in a phone interview from his home in Atiquizaya, a bedroom community of 52,000 about 50 miles west of San Salvador, the capital. "But I also want to give something back to my hometown. I want to teach them about the U.S. political process and how we as U.S. citizens use our rights, respect the Constitution and participate in the democratic process."

As international business, travel and communications explode, a growing number of nations are allowing dual citizenship, and more immigrants are claiming it. Some, like Gomez Gochez, aim to use their bilingual and bicultural experiences to infuse their homelands with U.S. values and strengthen bonds between both countries.

Others cite personal benefits, such as easier travel and better business opportunities. At a U.S. citizenship ceremony last month in Los Angeles, Ben Raposas, 38, a Simi Valley nurse, said he would apply for dual citizenship from his native Philippines to save tax dollars, have wider job choices and retain the right to return and retire. As an American, he said, it will be easier to get visas to travel and qualify for more jobs.

But the trend is also stirring some unease. Some argue that dual citizenship weakens a person's commitment to the United States, threatens a common national identity and violates the oath of allegiance taken by every naturalized citizen to "absolutely and entirely renounce" fidelity to any foreign government. A person cannot be loyal to two countries any more than to two spouses or two religions, critics say.