ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Imagine taking 25 years to complete one task.

Ana Yadira Aparicio Calderon, who goes by Yayo, took more than two decades of tears, fear and community support to complete her task of becoming a U.S. citizen.

“Once I get past this journey of this back and forth happiness, sadness, happiness, sadness, will officially end and I can just take the largest, deepest breath I could ever take in my life,” Yayo said.

She was born in northern Mexico. Her parents brought her to New York on her seventh birthday for a better opportunity.

“We don’t know the language, we don’t know the food. We don’t know anyone here except my mom’s brother. But we can’t let people know how scared and intimidated we are because we need to protect ourselves,” Yayo explained.

Over the next 23 years of living in New York, her immigration status changed several times. She got DACA, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, around the time she was 21. The Obama administration initiated DACA as a policy in 2012, allowing certain immigrants like Yayo to get work permits.

“As soon as that happened. I got my work permit and I think I started working at PetSmart because I love animals. And I was like, let me just do this for fun,” Yayo said.

She lost DACA, got married, got a green card, got divorced… and more feats set in over the years.

“Being undocumented, you’re always thinking of polar ends. It’s the really, really good or the really, really bad, there’s never been space for the in-between,” Yayo said.

She made space when she made her next move. Both physically, and in her citizenship journey.

She moved to New Mexico in 2021 and found a new sense of family in her part-time job at The Farmacy in Nob Hill. She leaned on them during her last citizenship hurdle last fall.

“I submitted my final documentation to apply for citizenship,” she said.

Donations came pouring in after the owner of The Farmacy set up a GoFundMe page in Yayo’s name. She says it pushed her over the finish line.

“I don’t know how I can ever feel like I can pay that back. Because what you’ve done for me, is a lifelong change that can never be repaid,” she said.

Yayo’s naturalization ceremony is set to happen Saturday, June 22.