By Ashton Slaughter – Tulsa World Reporter, Stephen Pingry – Tulsa World Photojounalist

As Tulsa Community College music students sang Woody Guthrie’s most iconic song, its lyrics hit the soul Wednesday morning.

“This land is your land. This land is my land.”

Inside the Thomas K. McKeon Center for Creativity, part of TCC’s metro campus, 20 candidates from 11 countries — anywhere from Cambodia to Zimbabwe — were celebrating their new U.S. citizenship.

One of them, Liliana Gutierrez Guerrero, representing her home country of Colombia, was minutes away from a full-circle moment. She began working for Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma as an immigration office manager in February 2020, helping immigrants and refugees find their way in a new country (Catholic Charities provides immigration services around the United States). For years, her career has centered around helping others pursue their American Dream. And once she raised her right hand during the naturalization ceremony, Gutierrez Guerrero became the first U.S. citizen in her family.

“It feels amazing to be reaching the end of this journey,” Gutierrez Guerrero said. “One of my dreams has finally come true, and it’s a dream that many immigrants share.”

Gutierrez Guerrero and her husband, Jorge Cortes Otero, arrived in 2013 after his company, which sponsored them for legal residency, transferred him to Tulsa. They lived here under that work visa for several years until they got their green card in December 2020, knowing they could apply for citizenship five years later. Which, of course, they did, and after all the studying and gathering of documents, Gutierrez Guerrero’s day came. Her husband hopes to say the Oath of Allegiance in a naturalization ceremony in the coming months.

Eleven colleagues from Catholic Charities were there to support Gutierrez Guerrero. One of them, Lemuel Godinez, the director of immigration legal services, called Gutierrez Guerrero a “pillar of the department.”

“Our clients come, essentially, because they want this. … This is what is the aspiration behind the American Dream,” Godinez said. “So, for her, to be in the day-to-day, helping others find that there is that route, and then for her to actually achieve that, it’s an inspiration for a lot of our clients; it’s an inspiration for those that work with her.”

Whenever Gutierrez Guerrero was announced as a citizen, her supporters hooted and hollered. Although it was a court proceeding, supporters were told to clap, cheer and celebrate the 20 however — and as loud as — they wanted.

And though the process is complete and her dream is fulfilled, Gutierrez Guerrero said the “responsibility” that comes with being an American citizen is just beginning: voting, obeying the law, continuing to help her community.

“I will be proud of my new citizenship,” she said. “I would like to continue serving the community; this country has given me and my family so much.”

Gutierrez Guerrero had the same excited-but-nervous energy on the day of the ceremony that she had leading up to it. With her knowing the hundreds — maybe thousands, a Catholic Charities representative projects — of immigrants and refugees who she has seen come through the office, Gutierrez Guerrero knows those who go through the process are more than a folder or a hand that can raise before cheerfully waving an American flag.

“I hope people remember that behind every case there is a family and that a little empathy goes a long way,” Gutierrez Guerrero said.

In Gutierrez Guerrero’s case, she, though, is now an American.

And in the words of Guthrie, which the choir sang:

“This land was made for you and me.”

Ceremony in Tulsa celebrating new U.S. citizens marks full-circle moment for one – Tulsa World – October 15, 2026