Plates help Aztec descendants become citizens

By Timothy Pratt

Tuesday, July 5, 2005 | 10:54 a.m.

In its first half-year on the market, a license plate featuring a 500-year-old Aztec calendar has been among the best-selling specialty plates statewide, raising money to help many descendants of the Aztecs become U.S. citizens.

The Citizenship Project, a nonprofit organization that helps immigrants become citizens, launched the license plate in late November through the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.

From Dec. 1 to May 31, the state has sold 1,201 of the Aztec calendar plates. Those sales make it the third best-selling among 25 specialty plates statewide, behind one celebrating the 100th birthday of Las Vegas, and another with a patriotic theme. June's sales figures won't be available until mid-July.

The plate's sales so far have given the project "a shot in the arm," the Rev. Phil Carolin, the Citizenship Project's executive director, said.

Each plate costs $61, $25 of which goes to the nonprofit organization. That means $30,025 has gone to the project so far, helping pay for 10,000 posters in English and Spanish advertising its services, plus extra staff and a part-time immigration lawyer.

In addition to helping people fill out the paperwork needed to obtain an interview for becoming a citizen, the project offers classes in English and to help applicants prepare for the citizenship exam.

The organization's advertising and added staff have translated to a jump in people seeking help in becoming citizens, Carolin said.

Before, the project would submit about 75 applications for citizenship a month; from December to June, it was able to prepare 599, or nearly 100 a month.

The project, founded in late 2001, has helped more than 1,000 people from at least 84 nations become citizens, while many more have sent in their applications but are still waiting for their interviews -- which include the exam on U.S. history -- or have had their interviews but are waiting for the federal government to complete a required background check.

About half of the project's clients are from Mexico. The Las Vegas Valley's Hispanic community is nearly 400,000, about 70 percent of whom are of Mexican descent.

Apart from printing posters and advertising in Spanish-language newspapers, Carolin said the plates have also gained the support of the supermarket chain, Supermercado del Pueblo, which has pledged to produce 300,000 grocery bags with the license plate's image, free of charge. The bags are to be used at the chain's four stores throughout the valley.

After seeing such a good start, Carolin said he hopes to sell 12,000 plates by the end of next year, which would raise $300,000 for the organization. If that plan works, his goal is to help 10,000 people become citizens.

The Aztec calendar plate was approved by the state under arrangements similar to other specialty license plates, which raise money for groups ranging from the Las Vegas Centennial Celebration Committee -- the top-seller to date -- to the Reno Rodeo Foundation, the plates that show a cowboy on horseback.

Groups sponsoring specialty license plates must obtain 1,000 signatures from Nevada residents pledging to buy the plates, and the sponsors have to obtain the support of the Legislature or a commission that evaluates proposals.

The Aztec calendar plate won the approval of the 2003 Legislature.

Only 25 plates can be in circulation at any one time. A particular design can be removed from circulation if sales drop below certain numbers.

Carolin doesn't seem worried about that happening with the Aztec calendar plate, which he thinks will only grow in sales as awareness of the plates spreads through the valley's large and growing Hispanic community.

In fact, the only trouble he's caught wind of so far is at the DMV offices themselves.

"The main stumbling block is having to wait on line at DMV," he said.

"I've heard that a lot."