After 101 Years, Texas Woman Becomes US Citizen

Exactly 101 years after crossing the Rio Grande on a ferry, a 101-year-old Texas woman will become a naturalized U.S. citizen, officials said.

Eulalia Garcia-Maturey is scheduled to take the oath of allegiance Tuesday in Brownsville during a special naturalization ceremony administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The agency said a U.S. magistrate judge will administer the oath in federal court.

The government agency says Garcia-Maturey was born in Mexico on Feb. 12, 1909, and arrived in the U.S. with her parents on Oct. 12, 1909, in Brownsville. She has lived there ever since, raising two children.

Garcia-Maturey told The Associated Press she was happy because she would be able to vote Nov. 2.

The woman's niece, Yolanda Ovalle, says part of the reason behind her aunt's long wait was that her husband, who died in 1982, didn't want her to become a U.S. citizen. Ovalle didn't elaborate on why Garcia-Maturey waited nearly 30 more years.

"She is very happy to be a citizen," Ovalle said.