View From the Latino Side - The War for the Frijoles
Pacific News Service, Commentary, Pilar Marrero, Posted: Mar 26, 2003
Though some communities in the United States feel the need to "close ranks" during wartime to appear patriotic, Latinos are resisting such calls. Instead, writes PNS contributor Pilar Marrero, many are easily expressing patriotism alongside a serious critique of the war in Iraq.
LOS ANGELES - Nobody can accuse Latinos of being unpatriotic.
We have done our share of fighting for this country, and continue doing it right now. Historians say more than 10,000 Latinos fought in the Civil War and, in Vietnam, Latinos suffered 20 percent of the casualties, although we were less than 5 percent of the U.S. population. And by the way, just for the record, we've earned 40 Medals of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration.
So I think we have a right to have an opinion about any war that the United States embarks on. And boy, do we Latinos have an opinion on this war against Iraq.
Even with all the demands that we become "one voice" and stop dissent so we won't be called "not American enough" -- or worse, be told to go back to Mexico (many of us aren't even from Mexico) -- Latinos are speaking out.
Nowadays, it's just hard to make them shut up once they start talking about this war.
There's a diversity of opinion out there. A month ago, a national survey sponsored by Pew Hispanic Center found that only 48 percent of Latinos supported war on Iraq, 15 percent less than the general population at the time. The opposition was strongest among recent immigrants.
There is no further data on how that has changed in the last few days, when the "rally round the flag" effect kicked in and support for the action supposedly climbed to 70 percent in the general population. But local surveys have shown great opposition to the war from Latinos in New York and California.
A recent study compared support for the war in areas of California that have a high percentage of people of color with other, more homogenously white regions. The latter showed the greatest support for the war.
The exception is, of course, Florida, where "Presidente Bush" is popular among the heavily Republican Cuban community.
Another way to gauge support for the war is to speak to people on the street or read Internet discussions that include Latinos from across the country.
In Los Angeles, with its heavily immigrant Latino population, it's easy to find voices against the war -- and I'm not talking about students in Chicano or Latino studies programs or political activists. I mean everyday people like Teresa Franco, whose son Juan, 19, has enlisted in the Army "because he wants to make something of himself and see the world," Franco says. He may be sent to the Middle East in the following weeks or months, and she's having nightmares about it.
Her plight reveals how torn many Latinos are about this conflict.
"I support my son. He says it will be an honorable thing to represent the United States. But I don't agree with this war, because I know that the money they're spending on that, they're taking away from our economy, schools and health care," she says.
A deeply religious woman, Franco says she puts all her faith in God to keep the young soldiers out of harms way. She also says that among the 20 or so women who take an English class with her at a nearby park, virtually no one supports the war.
"We know who's going to pay," she says. "We are."
In East Los Angeles, where many of the young see military service as the sole way to get a good job and education, American flags line the lampposts at Soto Street, a main thoroughfare. They've been there since Sept. 11. Flags also adorn some homes.
Jesus Quintana, a Vietnam veteran, remembers the pain and alienation he felt when he returned from service to a divided country. "I support our troops -- not because I support war, but because I know how hard it is to go and come back to criticism," he says.
"Many of our children, siblings and family members are serving in the military, and we need to be there for them."
Still, few anticipate the war will make things better for this economically depressed area. "Look around you," says Guadalupe Gomez, 72, who sits with some friends at the corner of Soto and Cesar Chavez streets, where dirt lines the avenues and metal bars guard windows. "The only war we are fighting here is the war against hunger.
"We call it the war for the frijol," he says, laughing.
Turn to Hispanic Vista, an Internet news site for Latinos, where a discussion is raging about the suggestion of Editor Patrick Osio, that we now need to be "one voice" and "hold our tongues" and support the troops.
After sending that article out, Osio was inundated with e-mails, hundreds of them, from all over the country. Some were supportive, but most expressed staunch, articulate opposition to the conflict. "Within an hour, they started coming in," he says. "The intensity of it really surprised me."
So much for the call to become one voice. We Latinos have strong, diverse and well-argued opinions -- just ask.
Marrero (Pilar.Marrero@laopinion.com) is political editor and columnist for La Opinion, the nation's largest Spanish newspaper.
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