Mario Pena arrived in Waukegan from his native Mexico in 1971. He worked full-time for Abbott Laboratories and had a part-time job at a 240-unit apartment complex.
After living in the U.S. for the requisite time to become a citizen, he applied. He completed the paperwork and had his interview. Then he waited and waited to learn when he would take the oath to become a citizen.
“I talked to the apartment manager about it,” Pena said. “He said he would make a call. He called (then U.S. Rep.) John Porter to speed it up. I took my oath in December 1985.”
Once he was a citizen and a registered voter, Pena said he wanted to help other immigrants obtain citizenship. He started relationships at churches and other places to talk to people. Initially, it was slow. He became more resourceful, and the numbers started to grow.
By the time Pena retired from Abbott and moved to Texas in 2010, he had voluntarily helped 5,300 people from 39 countries on three continents become citizens and registered voters, co-founded HACES with Maria Elana Jonas and served two terms as a Waukegan trustee.
Pena will be recognized for his service to the community during a Fiestas Patrias event at 4 p.m. Sunday at La Canoa restaurant in Waukegan for what he and others consider a calling.
“I feel God chose me to help people,” Pena said. “It felt so great to be able to do this. There is no price you can put on this. God gave me the opportunity to serve His people.”
After going to churches each Sunday in Waukegan, Highwood, Round Lake and Mundelein, Pena said he spent three months helping nine people become citizens in 1986. He decided he needed to become more focused and reached out to what today is Most Blessed Trinity Parish.
Each Sunday at Spanish-language Mass, he said the priest announced Pena would be at a table to help people become citizens. More and more came. He helped them with the paperwork and coached them through the process.
“I gave them the part of the form they could fill out themselves,” Pena said. “I went over the questions. When they were ready, they gave me the picture and the money order. I sent it to immigration.”
Becoming more involved, Pena was elected to the Waukegan Township Board of Trustees in 2001 and was reelected in 2005. Patricia Jones, the county supervisor at the time, said he was the first member of the Hispanic community to serve. He offered insight into his community.
“He was a gentleman who was ahead of his time,” Jones said. “He educated us about the needs of the Hispanic community. He was very patient and selfless. He developed programs for them and empowered them, too.”
As Jones saw how Pena worked with the Board of Trustees and within the community, she came to believe he had a calling to help people become citizens and voters.
“He is an angel here on Earth,” Jones said.
As he worked to help people become citizens through a not-for-profit organization he formed, he met Maria Elana Jonas. They helped each other in their joint quest to assist immigrants. In 2005, he got a call from her.
“She said, ‘We have to form an organization,” Pena said, and HACES came into existence with a mission of helping the immigrant community with citizenship and a host of other needs.
“We organized volunteer drives and training, large-scale workshops, citizenship classes, immigration assistance and counseling sessions,” Jonas said. “Mario’s countless hours of volunteer work and dedication to the communities of Lake County opened paths for thousands of individuals to become naturalized US citizens and voters.”
Dulce Ortiz, the executive director of Mano a Mano Family Resource Center and a Waukegan Township trustee, said she first met Pena when he was a trustee. Now a leader in the Hispanic community herself, his efforts made a lasting impression.
“He is a role model for our community and what a public servant should be,” Ortiz said. “He worked all week, and on the weekends, he was helping people.”
Though many of the people he helped become citizens were Mexican immigrants, Pena helped people from around the world. They came from Central America and South America, as well as Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Canada and Greece.
Once he counseled people through the naturalization process, Pena used the same organizational strategy to help them register to vote. He became a deputy registrar. He met people after church. The priest or minister let individuals know he was at a table to assist them.
“This is your duty, to go out and vote,” Pena said. “You are using your vote as your voice.”
