Sam Quinones

THE GREAT AMERICAN AWARD

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Sam Quinones

By Vicente Lagunas*

Through my years in elementary school, I was constantly thinking about living up to the standards of the native-born Americans. I was not born in the U.S.A. and this made me feel like I was a sub-standard American.

One day, in the fifth grade, my teacher, Ms. Stark, told us about a project called the “Great American Award.”

As soon as I heard the title, I felt a thump in my stomach.  I thought to myself, “I can never do this; I am not even a citizen.” I’m from Guanajuato, Mexico. Now I was in Las Vegas.

To win a Great American Award, you had to memorize the preamble to the Constitution, write it down the Pledge of Allegiance without any mistakes; you had to memorize the national anthem, all the states and capitals, all the presidents in order, and the Bill of Rights.

Ms. Stark helped us with the project many times. One day, when she came to me, she said, “Do you have anything done yet?”

I said, “no,” and told her that this project was only for “great Americans.”

She stared at me, sort of like she was scanning me.

“Just because you’re not native born here doesn’t mean you can’t do this,” she said. This inspired me. She gave me that push to try hard even though I was an immigrant.

For the next month, every moment of my free time was devoted to practicing my states and capitals, presidents, and my national anthem.  I tried to figure out strategies to help me memorize what I needed to learn.   I sang the song listing the states and capitals over and over until I knew it by heart.  I’ve always had a very strong memory. Every night before I went to sleep and right before I went to school I would recite whatever I had trouble on.

The presidents always gave me problems. I couldn’t remember where Polk or Tyler went, or how many James there were. So I studied my presidents in bursts. I would focus on the first ten and go on from there by tens, until I reached George W. Bush.

I had a lot of trouble with the presidents 11 through 20. ”Polk, Taylor, Filmore, Buchanan no wait… damn”. Then I would look back on my sheet to refresh my memory.

I tried to recite the whole list in front of the teacher and to answer her questions, but failed.

Still I kept on. “Si se puede” (“you can do it”) always appeared in my head. I wanted to prove myself. I thought it was going to be easy for those who were born here. I wanted to prove I could do whatever people here could do. After many tries, I got down the lyrics to the national anthem.  When I passed, Ms. Stark placed a star on a piece of paper shaped like the United States on my paper … and smiled.

Over the next two weeks I finished all the easy ones, such as writing the Pledge of Allegiance and singing The Star Spangled Banner. Actually, I barely passed that, due to my teacher covering her ears and telling me that if I stopped singing she would pass me on this.

After a month, I was done.  I had memorized all the states and capitals in order, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the National Anthem. I also finished memorizing the Bill of Rights, The Preamble to the Constitution (“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…”). I even finished the presidents, though it took me two weeks.

The ceremony took place in the multi-purpose room of my school Pat A. Diskin Elementary. The place was full of parents, teachers and the 15 students who won.

We went on stage to receive our trophies. There, I saw that only a few of the winners were native-born Americans. Most of us who won I knew weren’t citizens, or born in this country. I smiled at the fact that immigrants who weren’t citizens knew more about The United States than its actual citizens.

My parents were really proud. The trophies were small, but the accomplishment wasn’t. And after that day, I felt like a true American.

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*Vicente Lagunas, 15, is entering 10^th grade at Spring Valley High School in Las Vegas

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