Emcee Erred in Introduction to Reagan : President’s ‘Refugee’ Girl Was Born in U.S.

A little girl introduced publicly to President Reagan as a Nicaraguan refugee at a dinner this week was actually born and reared in the United States, her parents said today.

Patricia Guerra, 8, presented Reagan with a picture of refugee children at Monday night’s Nicaraguan Refugee Fund dinner, and received a much-photographed presidential kiss on the cheek.

The dinner kicked off Reagan’s drive to win congressional approval of $14 million in aid for the Nicaraguan contra rebels.

True Davis, the master of ceremonies and former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, introduced Patricia as “an 8-year-old Nicaraguan refugee.” But in reality, she is the daughter of longtime Nicaraguan residents and she has lived all her life in the United States.

“There was never any intention of passing her off as something she’s not,” said her mother, Thelma Guerra, who works for the World Bank. “It was just very unfortunate.”

Guerra said she was amazed at Davis’ error.

“I don’t know why he did that. It was probably for the same reason he didn’t introduce Jose Feliciano to sing the national anthem,” she said. “The poor man was just sitting there with his guitar ready to go.”

As the blind Feliciano sat idly in the audience, Davis led the 600 guests in singing the “Star Spangled Banner,” she said.

“It was all a simple mistake,” said Patricia’s father, Edgard, an employee of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington. “He made a lot of mistakes that night.”

Davis was not available for comment.