Three Reflections on America from a New Citizen

A perspective on some of what makes America unique.

There are two days that I cherish as the most meaningful of my life. One is my wedding day, and the other one is the day when a federal officer asked me to raise my right hand and repeat after her: “I hereby declare, on oath…”.

That day, I fulfilled a life-long dream: I became a U.S. citizen.

Becoming an American has been one of the biggest honors of my life, and one of the most important choices I’ve ever made. I had dreamed of becoming an American for over three decades. I was fortunate enough to come here legally in 2017 as a student and get my green card a few years later. Since then, my thinking of America has only deepened as I have experienced this country first-hand.

As tribalism runs rampant across the political spectrum, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s essential about our country. As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, I want to share three of my many reflections with my fellow Americans to help them remember what America is about and push to have it live up to its promise.

1. America really is the greatest country in the world.

From the first time I visited America as a child, it felt different from my home country of Argentina. The way I framed it in my young mind was: America felt big, safe, and limitless. It felt abundant, and it felt like a place where people came to make their dreams a reality.

As an adult, these impressions became concrete to me. I left Argentina amidst high inflation, skyrocketing crime rates, and myriad other obstacles. I didn’t want an okay life; I wanted the best life — and America was the only place to achieve that.

When I came to America, a new world opened up: I could study in a university that offered everything I could possibly need. I could get my dream job and earn a decent living, where I could rise as high as my ability and ambition would take me. I knew how much I’d pay for my food every week, as prices didn’t change daily due to inflation. I felt safe walking alone and didn’t have to constantly look over my shoulder, among many other things.

Since I came to America, I’ve lived a life that seemed unimaginable to me in Argentina when I left, and I’ve confirmed what I sensed as a child: America is the place where people come to make their dreams come true through hard work.

America is prosperous, and uniquely full of opportunity partly because it’s a society that cherishes trade and value creation. It’s the land of the producers. And this has been enabled by the massive political achievement that are America’s founding principles: that we have a right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The Founders recognized that life is ours to live on our own terms, not for the crown or the church or anyone else. This is not true everywhere: I grew up in a society that told me profit was evil, that I should sacrifice for “the people” (“el pueblo”) and that entitlement trumped exchange. Eva Perón’s famous quote that “where there’s a need, a right is born” encapsulates this mentality. In America, where there’s a need, a market is born.

This American approach helped give rise to a society of producers who kept on creating values and trading them with others in freedom. We’re truly unique — look at other countries like Iran, China, or Saudi Arabia, where people are treated as means to the ends of their religions or their government. Look at the countries who don’t enjoy our level of production and achievement. They don’t have our principles. When America commits injustices and falls short of its promise, resembling other countries, it’s because it has betrayed those values.

To me, a key aspect of what makes America unique is recognizing the vital importance of the founding principles and the freedom they enable.

2. Keeping America the best requires work.

I’ve been asked a few times what explains Argentina’s decay, as it went from a prosperous and promising country in the early 20^th century to the disaster it was when I left. My short answer is: Freedom is not automatic, it’s an achievement that must be preserved.

Argentina was founded on ideas partly inspired by the American founding principles, and that’s why it was one of the most prosperous countries early on. But those ideas eroded because not enough people defended them forcefully and freedom detractors, like President Perón, got away with attacking them. Decades later, we see the consequences.

While the situation in America is not nearly as dire, freedom is under attack across the political spectrum — from calls to break up our most successful companies to attacks on freedom of speech. If we want to preserve freedom and avoid Argentina’s fate, we must fight for it. America was founded on an idea, so we must not underestimate the need to defend it on intellectual grounds, and we must never abdicate this responsibility or dismiss it if we are to preserve the essence of America. Don’t leave that mission to politicians. It’s the responsibility of American intellectuals and its people to preserve founding ideals, and to do so the American way: through speech and persuasion, not violence.

3. Those who choose to make America their home are an asset in pushing America forward

I’ve been fascinated with America since it came to my awareness at age 4. I spent my childhood and teenage years seeking to consume American culture through TV, movies, video games, and literature. I sensed something special about America through these “windows” to American culture. I sensed there was something unique about America that I couldn’t get anywhere else. I wanted to partake, even if temporarily by traveling.

Later on, I realized what I sensed in my youth: I was picking up on Americanism and the consequences of the values I discussed above. America was such a strong presence in my life that I had become Americanized even before I first set foot on its shores. The lifestyle, culture, and values I saw appealed to me more than those of my home country.

America is an idea — and ideas know no bounds. This American ideal has transcended borders and reached every corner of the world. It has persuaded many abroad in such a way that they’ve adopted this Americanism in their own lives, as I did. The American ideal is so powerful that there are, in spirit, countless Americans around the world who have never set foot in America — a feat unique to this country.

Those who get a chance to come and live here generally want to be a part of this American experiment, and many, like myself, have jumped through rings of fire to make it there. I, like many others, was American on everything but on paper, until five months ago when I formalized what I felt in my heart and my mind: that I am an American because I cherish the principles that made this country, and I want to defend them and join in their rich history.
Not everyone who comes here feels this way, but I’m confident that most do. People who choose this country consciously have seen the alternative, and to some degree understand that America is unique and the only place in the world where they can live their best life. People like that are a huge asset in keeping American ideals alive.

These are three of the many things that I have learned throughout years of dreaming and thinking about America. I hope my fellow Americans reflect on them and join me in pushing forward this amazing experiment we’re a part of.