Cinco de Mayo festival kicks off downtown with 48 new US citizens

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - The weekend-long Cinco de Mayo festival kicked off Friday for the first time since the pandemic at the waterfront park in Portland.

On Friday in a special ceremony at the festival, 48 people representing 25 countries received their U.S. citizenship.

One person was Myriam Navarro, who is originally from Mexico.

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“This was a very exciting goal that I had, so I had to study really hard and here I am now,” Navarro said. She moved to California at 8 years old and eventually made her way to Oregon. “It’s been a journey,” Navarro said. “It has been hard at times but I was like you know what, it’s gonna be that day where I’m gonna study hard.”

Her son, Jacob Morales, said his mom has taught him to fight for what he wants.

“It’s amazing to be able to see different walks of life come and come and celebrate what we do,” Morales said.

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Navarro said the first thing she’s going to do now that she’s a U.S citizen is work hard.

“I have responsibilities now; I have to vote and work hard now to achieve the other dreams that I have.”

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