'Dream Come True.' Florida soldier becomes US citizen, HS graduate

'Dream Come True.' Florida soldier becomes US citizen, HS graduate

Story by Capt. Kyle Key

OCALA, Fla. -- Coming to America was easy, but the journey to stay here was paved with struggle for Pvt. Angel E. Chavez and his family.

Pvt. Chavez grew up in Panama in the city of La Chorrera and dreamed of coming to the United States some day.

“I would tell my friends in elementary school,” said Chavez. “They used to laugh at me. I would tell them, I am going there one day and I’m going to make it.”

In 2005, Chavez arrived in the United States with his parents and three siblings. They settled in Ocala, Fla., where his father started a business repairing and exporting vehicles to Panama and his mother found a job as a cosmetologist. He and his siblings were doing well in school and were adjusting to their new lives when a big problem arose: their visas expired and their entire family was subject to deportation.

The Chavez family tried every legal avenue to stay in the country. The dishonor of being illegal immigrants wore on the children. By 2008, his mother divorced and remarried a U.S. citizen and shocked the family by disappearing for two years with her new husband.
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