Oh, say can you see?

So Luis was on the phone for like 20 minutes last night blathering on and on in Spanish. Usually when he does that I just ignore him because it's usually some customer from the Bank wanting to know if he can reverse a fee, or a family member asking for money. I understand Spanish when I'm concentrating, but subliminal Spanish still escapes me. However it turns out this was a pretty important conversation.
When he got off the phone he told me he'd been talking with Emanuel (the guy that got us in to this whole thing- he introduced us and arranged our first blind date) and Emanuel was apparently going over with him the process of him becoming a citizen. Yup. You heard that right. My hubby wants to be a citizen. Weird.
Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day that would happen because if he has to renounce Mexican citizenship to do it (not sure if he does or not) his family will just DIE. Even if he doesn't, it's still the ultimate sell-out for Mexicans to become American; as if filling out mountains pointless paperwork while jumping through countless immigration hoops year after year is some sort of badge of patriotism, and the desire to avoid it is tantamount to being a traitor.
Anyway, he apparently has to pay a $500 fee, take a test, and swear an oath of allegiance to the U.S. That sounds a little too easy for me. After the sheer insanity of applying for his residency, I guess it seems kind of anti-climatic. Two of his buddies did it this year, though. I guess that makes it o.k. now.
I'm not sure if I like it, however. It means, for one thing, he can actually vote. Call me old-fashioned, but I kind of enjoyed the one vote per household situation, especially in this last election. It made my vote feel more important, and I liked being able to threaten him with voting independent. That really bothered him for some reason.
I also don't like that he'll seem less foreign- he'll just be another American with an accent. How exciting is that?
I will like not having to answer questions to immigration officials about our sleeping arrangements, however, and will enjoy not having to worry about paperwork when we cross the border, or the endless questions of what nationality will our children be.
I will not like the inevitable slurs made against me by his parents for being the reason for his deflection from his motherland- as if I've brainwashed him into wanting to be something they don't want to believe he already was long before I met him- an expat.
So all in all, I have mixed feelings. But I guess he's made up his mind. He claims he doesn't want to have to apply for a Visa to travel to Europe this summer, or whatever. So I guess it all boils down to convenience. 7 years of arguing back and forth about how to define our relationship and it comes down to this. Being a Mexican citizen is apparently not convenient enough for him, and he is quite efficient, after all.