Latinos for Washington to host citizenship classes

Community organization “Latinos for Washington” is hosting free classes for residents seeking citizenship status starting later this month.

Organization co-founder Sonia Leyva said the course, which runs March 14-April 13, met for an hour and a half twice every week at 6 p.m. during that time frame, with attendants choosing between Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday classes at the Washington Public Library.

“Everybody has to learn answers to 100 questions … about the government, about history,” she said. “When they go and take their test, they will only be quizzed on 10 of them, but they do not know which 10, so it’s best for them to go through and learn all 100 of them so they’re prepared.”

Leyva said the classes were essential to those intent on applying for citizenship.

“There’s lots of steps to this, so that’s why the class is so important,” she said. “It’s really nice to be with other people that are also learning, and just kind of work together, learn together.”

The classes, which the group holds twice a year, are an important part of Latinos for Washington’s mission.

““It’s a little scary sometimes, and so being a citizen gives you more freedom, a little more security, a little more ability to do different things that just being a resident does not,” Leyva said. ”They’re just as proud as somebody born here and sometimes even more proud because they know what it is to not have freedom and not have security and safety … for us it’s very important to host these classes because (we) strive to help the community.“

The classes go into depth on American history, to a degree Leyva said was more than most native-born citizens might know.

“Some of these question, I’m not going to lie, they’re pretty difficult,” she said. “For some of those questions, I knew that I knew it at some point, but not anymore. I couldn’t imagine being from outside the country and having to learn a whole different government, a whole different system.”

On top of the knowledge they provide, Leyva said the classes had an added benefit for those with 100% attendance.

“If they attend every class, they are eligible to get a scholarship for half of the money for the application fee,” she said. “Right now it’s about $730, $750 for the application fee … they get half of that money in a check form that goes to the United States Government.”

While the classes will provide Spanish interpreters on Tuesdays and Wednesdays — some applicants may qualify to take the citizenship test in Spanish — Leyva said it was open to people of any nationality.

“We have people in the class from all over, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras,” she said. And not just Spanish-speaking, we’ve had people of other countries that speak other languages take this class as well.”

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