Canadian citizenship
06 Jul 2012Last Sunday, on Canada Day, Val and I took the oath of citizenship to become Canadian (we retain our Mexican citizenship, too). The ceremony took place at the beautiful Government House, and we got the chance to meet and shake hands with the Lieutenant Governor Steven Point, the Minister of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development for British Columbia, Ida Chong, and the Mayor of Victoria, Dean Fortin.
It was an emotional ceremony, but I didn’t feel I became Canadian there. As with my PhD convocation, I felt that the ceremony was merely a ritual to mark something that had happened earlier on, gradually, over many moments and incidents. Getting the citizenship is great—I’ll get to vote, travel will be much easier—but I’ve been calling Canada home for a long time already.