Celebrating being a step closer to becoming a Spanish citizen

BARCELONA, Spain — What a journey it has been!

For more than a decade, I have longed to become a Spanish/European citizen. It was a dream my sister, Elena, and I had shared over the years.

The opportunity became real in June 2015 when the Spanish government passed a bill allowing Sephardic Jews to become Spanish citizens. For Spain, it was an act of contrition for kicking out all Sephardic Jews in 1492 during the Spanish Inquisition.

On Monday, Sept. 9, I went to Barcelona to get my Spanish citizenship application notarized — an important and necessary step in the process of becoming a citizen. For me, it had been a dream deferred because of Covid and all my work and family obligations. 

My heritage is steeped in Sephardic history. Our ancestors immigrated from Spain to Thessaloniki (Salonica), Greece, where they lived for more than 450 years. My grandfather, Joseph Nehama, actually wrote a seven-volume history of the Jews of Salonica, and he was a leader of Sephardic Jews in Salonica until his death in 1971.

Being able to become a Spanish citizen feels like sweet justice — repairing the wrongs of so many centuries ago.

The process has been anything but easy. My sister and my niece, Lily, were able to move quickly to get all their documents and pass their examinations, so they actually gained their citizenship and their Spanish/European passport in 2019.

Needless to say, I was envious. 

I began working with the Or VeShalom Synagogue in Atlanta to get all my documents in order, including being able to prove my Sephardic heritage. Through the Sephardic synagogue, I was connected with a Spanish attorney, Cesar David Ciriano Vela, who helped me navigate the process.

I also had an important friend, Andreu Lascorz Arcas, who I had met in 2012 when he saw my name on a newspaper article. He reached out to me because he had studied the Saporta name as part of his research on the life of Jews in Aragon during the 12th to 15th centuries.

We met and became friends. His son, Roger Lascorz, was then at the University of West Georgia. He then attended Georgia Tech to study aerospace engineering. When Roger needed someone to sponsor his application to become a legal U.S. resident in 2014, I happily agreed to step in.

Andreu Lascorz quickly became like family. He even traveled to meet with Elena and Lily when they had their meetings in Barcelona to get their applications notarized. During my entire journey to become a Spanish citizen, Andreu helped me make sure everything was on track.

Unfortunately, my Spanish was not good enough to pass the language or civics test required as part of the citizen application. So, I enrolled in classes at the Latin American Association in 2016, a wonderful resource for people who want to learn Spanish or for people learning English as a second language. Later, I was able to get my Spanish teacher, Andrea Garcia, to tutor me and help me prepare for the tests.

Again, the process wasn’t easy. Applicants have to take the exams from the Instituto Cervantes, and the closest ones were in New York and Miami.

In July 2017, I went to New York to take the civics test, which was all in Spanish. I failed my first attempt, which only reinforced my need to become more proficient in Spanish. I returned to New York in early October 2019 to take the all-day Spanish test — the morning was the written portion, and the afternoon was conversational. Amazingly, I passed that test.

Later that same month, I traveled to Miami to take the civic test, which covers Spanish history, government, politics, literature, culture and geography. This time I passed.

Among the other documents I had to have in hand was clearance from the FBI — complete with fingerprints, an official translation of my birth certificate, and countless other documents. By January 2020, I had completed all the needed components for my application. The final step was to travel to Spain to get my application notarized by a Spanish notary.

Then the pandemic happened, and I put the whole process on hold. I had put so much effort into becoming a Spanish citizen that I felt guilty that I kept putting off the final step. I began to worry whether I had waited so long that I would have to restart the process.

Fortunately, my Spanish attorney told me it was possible to move forward with my application. That’s when I decided to give myself a birthday present by traveling to Spain to meet with the notary.

On Friday, Sept. 6, the day before I was supposed to fly to Barcelona, I got a WhatsApp message from my lawyer’s office: “Due to computer errors in the Ancert platform of the Ministry of Justice, it is not possible to make the signature on Monday. We are doing our best, but it is a general failure in the system of the Ministry. We cannot move this. Will you be more days in Spain?”

My travel plans were set, and I could not change them because I was leaving Tuesday for Paris to spend several days with my niece. I begged and pleaded with my lawyers to find a solution. And I sought Andreu Lascorz’s help, who reassured me we would.

For the next several days, I kept singing the Eric Clapton song: “Running on Faith.” It worked. Late Sunday afternoon, my lawyer sent me a message. “I have excellent news. The notary answered some minutes ago to my email from Friday [that] it will be possible to sign tomorrow. Is a miracle.” 

Andreu and I met at 1 p.m. to go to the notary’s office, where we met with a representative from my lawyer’s office — Moise Moreno. Finally, at about 3 p.m., Notary Pilar Martinez-Cortés Gimeno came in and carefully reviewed my file to make sure all my papers were in order. I breathed a sigh of relief when she asked me to sign the application. She graciously agreed to pose for a picture with me, and she asked me to send her a link to a column I would write about my journey.

After paying my lawyer and the Notary, Andreu and I enjoyed a three-and-a-half-hour lunch at his favorite restaurant in Barcelona, 7 Puertas, an establishment that’s been around for 187 years.

After dinner, I took a swim at the beach of Barceloneta — a wonderful conclusion to my journey to Spain.

Many people have asked me why I want to become a Spanish citizen. Throughout my life, I have spent several months at a time in Europe, mainly in Greece and France, but also in Spain and other countries in Europe. 

At some point in the near future, I would like to spend time in Europe retracing the lives of my parents during World War II and beyond. They were hiding in Athens when the Germans brought them in for questioning on their one-year wedding anniversary. Papa escaped. But Mama spent a year in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp with her parents until the end of the war. The book will explore the ups and downs in their relationship and their eventual journey to move to the United States. 

I look forward to having dual citizenship. While I have no plans to leave Atlanta, I love the idea of having options in life. It still may take months before I’m able to become a Spanish citizen and get a European passport. 

At least my birthday trip to Barcelona was a big step forward in reclaiming my Sephardic heritage and embracing my family’s past.