{"id":113480,"date":"2017-08-23T01:33:59","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T05:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=113480"},"modified":"2017-08-23T01:33:59","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T05:33:59","slug":"103-year-old-cambodian-woman-becomes-us-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/23\/103-year-old-cambodian-woman-becomes-us-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"103 year old Cambodian woman becomes US citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A 103-year-old Cambodian woman who survived starvation, suffering and war in her native land beamed and waved a tiny American flag on Tuesday as she became a United States citizen. (Photo<\/a> by Michael Kumm\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 A 103-year-old Cambodian woman who survived starvation, suffering and war in her native land beamed and waved a tiny American flag on Tuesday as she became a United States citizen.<\/p>\n

Hong Inh was the oldest of more than 10,000 people who took the oath of allegiance in a cavernous room at the downtown Convention Center in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

She came to the United States when she was about 97 years old to join a daughter and other relatives.<\/p>\n

Three generations of her family, from her 80-year-old daughter Hieng Meng to 13-year-old great-granddaughter Melissa Tea were on hand for the ceremonies.<\/p>\n

She has 30 grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in the U.S. and Cambodia.<\/p>\n

Her relatives helped Hong Inh up from a wheelchair and she stood with a flag in her raised hand to receive the oath. Her grandson spoke the words but she joined in the roar of applause at its conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe says she’s so excited and happy,\u201d said her granddaughter, Siv Taing, 40, of Orange.<\/p>\n

Later, Hong Inh stood again, with her hand over her heart, for the Pledge of Allegiance and a singer’s rendition of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d<\/p>\n

Hong Inh survived years of war and violence under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that time she was so suffering. They didn’t have anything to eat,\u201d her granddaughter said.<\/p>\n

She always wanted to come to America.<\/p>\n

It was \u201cjust a dream because she wished to live in a peaceful country,\u201d said her grandson, Kim Ngoun Taing, 36.<\/p>\n

Relatives were able to bring her to the U.S. 5 1\/2 years ago. She had to be a legal permanent resident for at least five years to apply for citizenship.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family is so proud and amazed. It’s so unbelievable that my great-grandma achieved one of her dreams,\u201d 15-year-old Melissa Tea said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe really likes it,\u201d she said. \u201cShe likes how she can do a lot of things freely. … She can watch Chinese dramas by herself.\u201d’<\/p>\n

Hong Inh was presented with her naturalization certificate by Donna Campagnolo, director of the Los Angeles district office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s just an absolute joy,\u201d Campagnolo said. \u201cI think the glow and the smile on her face are just inspirational, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hong Inh is not the oldest person to become a U.S. citizen. Manik Bokchalian, a Turkish immigrant who lived in Los Angeles, was 117 when she took the oath in 1997.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 A 103-year-old Cambodian woman who survived starvation, suffering and war in her native land beamed and waved …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":113483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16,17],"tags":[21698,21697,21699],"class_list":["post-113480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-immigration","category-news","category-news-w","tag-103-year-old-cambodian","tag-hong-inh","tag-us-citizen","mauthors-robert-jablon","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}