LOS ANGELES — Fernando Valenzuela recently held his right hand over his heart and clutched an American flag in his left hand, the same one that used to fire screwballs past major league batters.
The photograph of the moment spoke for itself: Valenzuela, the chunky boy from Mexico who once set baseball on its head, was now a United States citizen.
With his quirky look-to-sky delivery, Valenzuela became a baseball rock star in the early 1980s, with Fernandomania capturing the attention not only of Los Angeles, but also much of the country.
All these years later, against a backdrop of impassioned political debate about immigration, Valenzuela was one of 8,000 people who, on July 22, took the oath of allegiance in a naturalization ceremony at this city’s convention center, three and a half miles from where he worked his magic at Dodger Stadium.