SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Brayan Pena's ever-present bright smile seemed even wider this week. From sea-to-shining sea wide, like the breadth of America.

The Cuban-born catcher was accepting congratulations in the Royals' clubhouse for his new status: Citizen of the United States.

"I feel like the happiest man on earth now," he said.

Pena flew to Miami last weekend for the final test and passed. His citizenship swearing-in ceremony will come within the next two weeks, also in his adopted home of Miami.

It was a long road to this glorious time for Pena. He fought the odds, much like he's doing in this camp as he scraps for a Major League job, his way blocked by established catchers Miguel Olivo and John Buck.

"It takes time, you know," he said.

His journey began in the spring of 1999 when Pena went to Venezuela with the Cuban Junior National team for a tournament in Caracas.

Pena was just 17 but, as a kid in Havana, he'd dreamed of playing Major League Baseball. He decided to defect and with the help of his agent, a plan was developed.

When the team was being escorted to breakfast in a Caracas hotel, Pena asked a security guard for permission to stop at a bathroom. The guard wanted to accompany him but Pena pleaded for privacy and prevailed.

"I had a friend who told me that morning he was going to leave the bathroom back door open," Pena said. "It wasn't a door, it was a window. So I had jump out of the window. He was waiting for me and we drove five hours away from Caracas."

He was able to get through the window and the bathroom was on the first floor.

"I got lucky and back then I didn't weigh 230 pounds," he said with his big smile.

Reluctantly, he left behind his friends and teammates, including his childhood buddy Yunel Escobar, who years later escaped Cuba in a fishing boat and now plays shortstop for the Atlanta Braves.

Pena was driven to a town where the agent had rented a small house for him and his rescuer. Basically, he was in hiding for several months. He had to wait for things to cool down. After all, his defection made the news.

"My picture was in the newspapers and on TV," he said, "so for me to practice I had to wait until everybody cleared the field there. I couldn't have a regular life because I was scared to get deported back to Cuba."

Imagine the decision that was for a 17-year-old kid.

"The hardest part was I was leaving my family behind. I didn't know exactly what was going to happen to them back then," he said. "But I made that decision because it could help my family economically and I felt like I was trying to move ahead with my baseball career. I felt like my best shot was here in America."

When the heat was off, Pena went to Costa Rica, where other Cuban defectors like El Duque Hernandez were living and working out.

"He congratulated me for my big step," he said. "I think I was the youngest guy in the group. Everybody kind of felt like my dad back then. It was great but it was scary at the same time."

Eventually a tryout camp for unsigned players was held in Costa Rica for all 30 Major League clubs. The Atlanta Braves, where Dayton Moore was in scouting and player development, were there and had a strong interest in Pena.

"He was working out in Costa Rica and all of baseball had seen him," recalled Moore, now Royals general manager. "We were at a point where our catching at the Minor League level lacked depth and it lacked quality. So we were very aggressive with Brayan Pena."

So aggressive that the Braves gave him $1.25 million to sign. Pena was on his way to the United States.

"It was kind of like a bidding war," said Rene Francisco, then a Braves scout and now Moore's special assistant. "It was a free-agent market and we came out with the player."

Francisco recalled that in the estimation of Braves' evaluators, Pena compared with top players in the U.S. draft, was one of the best catching prospects at that time.

A right-handed batter, he learned to hit left-handed as well at Francisco's suggestion. Chino Cadahia, now the Braves' bench coach, gave the kid catcher some other advice: learn English.

"It doesn't matter how good you are, it doesn't matter how good a hitter you are," Cadahia told him. "If you can't speak English, there's no communication with the pitchers and the coaches and the managers. Some position players can get away with that, but not a catcher."

So Pena started learning. When he watched movies, he clicked on the English -- not Spanish -- subtitles so he could see the words as they were spoken. Teammates like pitcher Matt Wright, now with the Royals but then in the Braves' system, helped Pena polish his speaking and writing skills.

"I always wanted to learn Spanish so he'd help me with my Spanish and I'd help him with his English," Wright said. "We played together a long time. We've always been good friends, not just teammates."

Today Pena's English is perfect.

"He likes to try to use all the big words now," Wright said wryly.

Pena started out in 2001 at Danville, hit .370 and was an Appalachian League All-Star. In the meantime he began working to get his family out of Cuba. Fortunately, there had been no reprisals against his family after his defection.

"Thank God, nothing happened. They came to my family and told them it was my decision. It had nothing to do with them. [The government] did not agree with what I did, but there would be no retaliation against them," Pena said.

Extracting his family was a tedious and costly process.

"I didn't want to take any risk," he said. "I didn't want my family to take a boat or a raft. I tried to make sure that everything was legal. It took a little bit longer but it was a safer way."

By 2002, his father, his mother and stepfather, his two brothers and two sisters were able to come to Miami. That's huge for him; he's a family guy.

"I just wake up and try to have the best day I can and be happy," he said. "Like I told the skipper: I can never be happy or upset because I've got my family here in the United States, everybody's healthy, I can talk to them every day, every hour, every moment with no hesitation. There are no worries. I'm taking care of my family and I'm here in the big leagues. It's exciting. I can't be sad, I can't be upset after everything I went through."

Pena had brief stays with Atlanta in each of the past four seasons; he's played just 71 Major League games with a .228 average. Claimed on waivers by the Royals last May 30, he went to Triple-A Omaha and batted .303 in 60 games with six homers and 31 RBIs.

This spring he's played in 14 of the Royals' 21 games and is batting .318 (7-for-22). He got his first extra-base hit, a double, on Wednesday night. Manager Trey Hillman has tried him in left field and third base as well as catcher.

Pena is facing long odds with Olivo and Buck ahead of him.

"Both of them have been nice to me," he said. "They've shared information with me. They help me a lot with my defense and how things are run here in the Kansas City organization and I'm very grateful to both of them. It's not like a battle. We're like brothers and we help each other."

His biggest moment this spring, though, happened in Miami when he became a citizen. He not only had to demonstrate he could read, write and speak English but he had to know the answers to 225 questions about American history.

"They only asked six but you had to know the answers to all of them," he said. "I know a lot about American history now."

Pena's smile becomes wider as he talks about it.

"I'm officially a United States citizen," he said. "It's a big accomplishment. I'm proud to be a Cuban, too, but I'm proud to be an American citizen because this is the country I live in, this is the country I respect, the country that really gave me everything I've got. It's amazing. There are things that money can't buy and American citizenship is one of them."