15887: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Haitians seek U.S. citizenship (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

on Fri, Jun. 13, 2003

Haitians seek U.S. citizenship
BY NICHOLAS SPANGLER
nspangler@herald.com




CRASH COURSE: Jacques Despinosse helps Wilserte Charles learn how to use
voting machine during citizenship class. PETER ANDREW BOSCH/HERALD STAFF


Nobert Auguste sent his citizenship application Wednesday; he's got six,
maybe seven months before he goes downtown to take the citizenship test.

Genevieve Betty has been studying for months; her daughters quiz her in the
kitchen after dinner.

And after 24 years of residency in the United States, Barnabe Valme takes
the final exam July 31, at 1:50 p.m.

They trudge in one, sometimes two or three nights a week after work, to an
airless hall in Little Haiti that has desks and a flag and a map of Miami's
voter precincts for decoration.

This is the Haitian-American Citizenship and Voter Education Center. Here
they are drilled ruthlessly for two hours in elemental points of U.S.
history and civics by Jacques Despinosse and Roseline Phillippe.

Who, for instance, is the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court? Who was
the first president? What county do we live in?

There were 20 students in the hall Thursday night and together they managed
to answer the questions:

William Rehnquist. George Washington. Miami-Dade.

But ''What country?'' followed ''What county?'' and was the cause of mass
confusion. ''It's not my fault,'' said Phillippe. ``It's the English
language and many words sound alike.''

The students were all adults and a good many of them were elderly. ''Mami!''
said the younger ones to the old women when they answered one correctly.

There were study guides for the students to take home and the center appears
to be getting good mileage out of them. True, Lawton Chiles is no longer the
governor of Florida, but that's no reason to throw out an otherwise accurate
primer; so ''Jeb Bush'' was printed out and pasted on slivers of paper in
hundreds of the booklets.

The booklet does misspell Ben Franklin (''Frankly'') and also says there are
13 executive departments in the president's cabinet, missing the correct
number by two. It lacked Homeland Security, the new department, and Veterans
Affairs, which was created in 1989.

Valme is 66, works as a cleaner, has three children at home. He's been
coming to these classes for three months.

''For all this time I've been studying,'' he said. ``I've been here almost
like half a person for 20 years; I'm ready to vote now, decide the
government. I pray that God will help me pass that test and get me the card
to vote.''

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