Alfonso Aguilar, the son of Italian and Costa Rican immigrants, was named the first head of the U.S. Office of Citizenship, a post he has held for five years. Though he’ll soon be leaving the job, he hopes to practice immigration law and continue pushing for comprehensive reform.

Q. What do you wake up to?
A. Utter silence, which I enjoy, and thanking God for another day.

Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Truth.

Q. What comforts you?
A. When truth is respected and justice is done.

Q. What inspires you?
A. I’m inspired by goodness, by people who do good, by people who want to change the world for the better.

Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. I try not to prize material possessions too much…. But I love my home in Washington, D.C. It is a nice thing to have a home.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. I don’t believe in extravagance. But with that qualifier, I think probably my car. I have a BMW.

Q. If you could live in any time, past, present or future, when would it be?
A. I would have to say now, because that is the time God has asked me to live in.

Q. What is your favorite childhood memory?
A. Probably Christmases with my family.

Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. I would be an architect.

Q. Whose talent would you like to have?
A. If I could have the talent of any great painter—Monet, Degas—who dedicated his life to painting, who had great skill and great vision.

Q. Who is the one person, living or dead, who you would like to have a beer with?
A. Probably Augustine…. It would be interesting to sit down with him and get into a good discussion about truth and how to get to it.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.