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NEWS & LETTERS, November-December 2005A parent brings the Iraq war homeEscondido, Cal.--Proyecto Guerrero Azteca por la Paz (Guerrero Azteca Peace Project) works to raise consciousness in the youth that the best option to combat terrorism or injustice is not the army but to continue in school. When you tell students not to go into the army to get money for college, they say, "Okay, give me something." Our website lists 100 organizations that give scholarships regardless of immigration status, and we are creating $500 scholarships for students who decide not to join (http://www.guerreroazteca.org) Along with various groups in San Diego, we visit schools and give the students a flyer with information about their rights to opt out of having their personal information sent to the military and about the military’s ASVAB vocational test being given in schools. We speak out against the war and the occupation of Iraq. At the same time we participate in aid to the immigrant community against La Migra and the Minutemen. The African-American community, like the immigrant community, are being sidelined from education, medical and other services. It’s the other war they’re in, besides the war in Iraq. The percentage of African Americans is very high in the Army and Marines, and very low in the Air Force. They are enrolled in the areas with the greatest danger and lowest pay. The rich make the wars, and the children of the working class fight and die in them. When my son Jesús, who was killed in Iraq, was 11 or 12, we lived in Tijuana. I worked with the community in poor areas, and sometimes Jesús came with me. In one house we found a baby having convulsions. It died from eating cocaine because the father was trafficking drugs. Jesús wanted to join the police, attack the narco-traffickers, and keep children from abusing drugs. When he was 13, military recruiters at the mall in Chula Vista asked Jesús what he wanted to do when he grew up. He told them he would join the police department in Tijuana. The recruiter told him that was dangerous and it would be better to go to high school in the U.S. and join the military, and he would receive the best training in the world and combat narco-trafficking. He began calling Jesús every week, sending him souvenirs and presents. Whenever we went to Chula Vista, the recruiter was there. We lived in Mexico, but Jesús pushed me to let him go to high school in San Diego so he could join the military. In 1997 our family moved to San Diego. The recruiter promised that after one year of service Jesús could automatically go to the D.A. as a federal agent. I never supported violence or the military. I lived in Mexico City in 1968 and 1971, when the government and military killed students there. But the reason Jesús joined the Marines was, in my opinion, humanitarian. He called himself Guerrero Azteca, which means Aztec warrior, because he believed in fighting army against army, not army against civilian population. Our group’s name is Guerrero Azteca Peace Project after him, and because to achieve peace, one has to fight, with different weapons: words, truth, heart, love. More women are involved in the military, more Latinas and young girls of color, for the same reason as boys: the system has closed opportunities for a good education. Recruiters say, "Don’t worry. Women don’t go to war. Your job is in the hospital, or the office." More than 25 women have died in Iraq and 95% of women in the military have been sexually harassed at least once. I consider this the historical moment in the U.S. to achieve a radical change. Since the Vietnam war, voices have never spoken out against the government as strongly as today. The Iraq war, the bad economy and poverty in the U.S., are creating the conditions for people’s action, and we will act to make a change. --Fernando Suarez del Solar |
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