Maria Denogean received a bonus Mother's Day gift Monday evening when President Bush highlighted her son in his national immigration address.
The president used former Marine Master Gunnery Sgt. Guadalupe Denogean, who earned his citizenship in 2003, as an example of how immigrants can enrich the United States. The compliment came toward the end of Bush's 17-minute nationally televised speech.
"We will always be proud to welcome people like Guadalupe Denogean as fellow Americans," Bush said. "Our new immigrants are just what they've always been — people willing to risk everything for the dream of freedom."
Maria Denogean didn't hear the speech but family and friends told her about it. She had talked to her son the day before when he called to wish her a happy Mother's Day, but he didn't tell her that he would be mentioned in the speech.
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"Well, I'm proud of him because he was in two wars," said Denogean, 77, who lives in South Tucson.
Guadalupe Denogean, 45, was born in Cananea, Sonora, and grew up in Nogales. The 26-year veteran of the Marine Corps served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and was in Iraq on March 22, 2003, when an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade hit his Marine vehicle somewhere near the Iraq-Kuwait border.
He suffered cuts caused by shrapnel, and spinal fluid leaked from his skull, said his wife, Jeri Denogean, of Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Bush met Guadalupe Deno-gean while he was recovering from his injuries at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. There, on April 11, 2003, he was sworn in as a U.S. citizen in an emotional ceremony with Bush present.
Maria Denogean said her son was a maintenance chief with the Marine Corps' 1st Tank Battalion and now works for a private company as a tank mechanic.
She said her son still suffers headaches and back pains from the injuries sustained in the ambush. But overall, she said, he's doing well.
His father, Manuel Denogean, died this March, she said.
