• Brandon Leonard •
• Originally published July 3, 2008 at 7:51 a.m., updated July 3, 2008 at 7:51 a.m.

Nothing.

That is what Victoria pediatrician Luciano Sarabosing Jr., did to celebrate Independence Day when he migrated to the United States from the Philippines in 1986.

“To me, it was more of a vacation,” the now naturalized U.S. citizen said. “In the Philippines, we didn’t celebrate our Independence Day as much as we do here in the States. There’s more of an involvement by the people, the citizens, here.”

The transition to begin celebrating national holidays, such as Independence Day, takes a few years for immigrants, especially if the first generation comes without family, said Nestor Rodriguez, chairman of the sociology department at the University of Houston.

“I think at the very beginning they are just working and trying to get by. When they get a Fourth of July off, they’ll take that,” the professor, who has been studying immigration since 1978, said.

Sarabosing’s mother and sister came to the United States before him, but he started college shortly after he arrived, creating a gap of several years before he understood the history of Independence Day and celebrated it.

His former wife, Sheryl, a “very patriotic woman,” he said, was the person who helped him learn the history of the nation’s holidays.

“I guess it’s after you live here when you learn the significance of Independence Day,” Sarabosing said.

Rodriguez agreed, saying migrants with connections to the community, whether it be through going to church or their kids’ involvement in school, cause immigrants to begin participating in the U.S. culture.

“It’s something they don’t get into right away. You don’t enculturate into it right away, but slowly, through other activities and connections with the community, whether it’s church or schools or whatever, they’re drawn into it,” Rodriguez said.

But migrants who travel back and forth between countries are slower to identify with the holidays, Rodriguez said.

“Migrants who go back and forth, working part-time here and part-time there, so their incorporation, or integration, into society is going to be slower,” the Corpus Christi native said.

In 2000, immigrants formed 4.9 percent of the city’s total population, roughly 3,000 people, according to U.S. Census Data.

This July 4 is the 232nd anniversary of the day in 1776 when the Second Constitutional Congress met in Philadelphia, Pa., and adopted the Declaration of Independence, the announcement of the Colonies’ separation from Great Britain and identity as an independent nation. But Congress did not declare the day a federal holiday until 1941.

This Independence Day, Sarabosing, who became a U.S. citizen in 1996, is hosting a barbecue.

“I go to Wal-Mart, buy my flag and everything,” Sarabosing said. “I’m quite proud to be a U.S. citizen.”

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