“No matter where you come from,” Steve Cole told the people gathered on Lexington’s Battle Green Tuesday morning, “here you belong.”
Cole wore a blue wool coat with white tassels on the shoulders and a tricorn hat — the 76th Captain Commanding of the Lexington Minute Men, he is the man who, at the annual reenactment, plays Captain John Parker, who led the first battle of the American Revolution on that same patch of grass.
Two hundred and fifty-one years later, on a picture-perfect spring day, 49 people stood on the Green and prepared to take the Oath of Allegiance to the nation born on that battlefield.
Their origins, read aloud in turn, ran nearly the length of the alphabet — Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Israel, Jamaica, South Korea, Nepal, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam; two each from China, the Dominican Republic, Spain, and Taiwan; three from Brazil, France, Germany, Guatemala, and the United Kingdom; five from India; seven from Canada.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson administered the oath. “You do not take an oath of allegiance to any person, to any political party, or even to any state or local government,” he said. “Your oath is to the Constitution.”
It was the second naturalization ceremony held on the Green. The first was last year, as part of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the shot heard round the world.
Among those sworn in was Oscar Morales, 27, of Waltham, dressed in a crisp black suit jacket and flanked by an entourage of a dozen high school and college friends. His father brought him over from Guatemala as a teenager; he studied at UMass Boston and now tends bar. “I’m very grateful and lucky to be a citizen of the U.S.,” he said.
A woman named Xuemei — she declined to give her last name — looked patriotic in a bright red dress. “I loved the ceremony, loved the speeches,” she said. “It’s an important moment.” Xuemei came to the U.S. from northern China for grad school, and now teaches sociology at Bentley University.
Filipe dos Santos, from Malden by way of Brazil, is a year into his service in the U.S. Army: “To be part of the Constitution, to be able to vote — it’s really amazing,” he said.
At the time of the Revolution, the population of Lexington was mostly of English descent; the town was also home to a mix of free and enslaved Black residents, including at least two who fought in the famous battle.
Today, about a third of Lexington’s residents are Asian American, with sizable Chinese, Indian, and Korean communities; among the Minute Men in the annual reenactment is at least one Chinese American. Vineeta Kumar, who last year was elected the first person of color on Lexington’s Select Board — herself a naturalized citizen, originally from India — also offered remarks at the ceremony.
“As we gather here on the historic Battle Green, the birthplace of the American Revolution, we are reminded that this nation was born from extraordinary courage and a belief in the promise of liberty, justice, and equal opportunity for all,” Kumar said. “Today you become part of that living legacy.”
Cole’s wife is originally from Mexico; he is hoping she’ll be somewhere on the grass, flag in hand, at next year’s ceremony.
“I can’t think of a more meaningful place to hold this ceremony,” he told LexObserver. “Captain Parker would be very proud.”