We still do not know why we are at war. They have given us tranquilizing explanations to make us believe that this is a “just war.” They tell us that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who is exploiting his people, and that the most expedient way to liberate Iraqis from the dictator is to bomb Baghdad to ruins. Only the promoters know the real motive that prompts this war. As for us, the only thing we know is that they get us involved against our will.

Hispanics in the Army:

Addressing their scant representation in the Armed Forces, Lois Caldera, the first Hispanic secretary of the United Stated Army, initiated a propaganda campaign during the second Clinton term.

He asked Hispanics to become members of the United States Army, just like various United States governors had done in the 1970s to integrate African Americans into the country’s military structure.

Edgar Caballero, a Mexican resident of Atlanta, told the journal Iblnews that, while he was a high school student in Missouri, he received a notification from the United States government that invited him to join the
U.S. Armed Forces during the Gulf War.

“They promised me a Green Card, the license to work and reside in the country, and the possibility to become a naturalized United States citizen, if I consented to become a member of the Army,” he admitted.

Gratitude?

I have labored since I was 17 years old. As I have come to recognize my rights as a worker, I have learned much since the time I took my first work assignment. For an average day of work, I was paid 50,000 pesetas each month, which, in our terms, equaled about $75 a week. With this money I could not even permit myself the luxury of dreaming of a house or even of a rental.

My boss was a rich man to whom I had to defer in order to prove my solidarity. He established an association that allowed seniors to have access to culture that was beyond the reach of young people. He tried to transport his association to the highest peaks of social recognition, so that they would give him many medals for being such a humanitarian individual. However, he paid me only 75 dollars a week. To him, this seemed to be an excessive cost. Frequently, he would be astounded by my petitions that he increases my daily salary. Many times, he told me in very bombastic terms that I should be grateful to him because he was giving me a salary. I did not understand why I should be indebted to him. He needed a cultural coordinator, with the distinct experience and ability that he found in me. He gave me a salary and I gave him my work: it was a deal that was more or less just. There was not a single favor. I did not owe him, nor did he owe me. I remember that he habit of telling me “you just do not know how much you cost me . . .” as if I were a computer or a machine or an office tool.

It is good to know this. When we go to other countries to work hard, to put our backbones into whatever field of work nobody else wants, we are not in debt. They need us, and we give them our work. We are neither a cost nor an encumbrance, nor the result of an act of solidarity. We cannot go into the world with our heads lowered, suffering a continuous lack of self-respect because they have given us work. Work is not a gift. It is a burden under which we must bend in order to be able to maintain our families. With a bit of luck, we may be able to find a job that we like. However, as a general rule, a Hispanic does not typically find work in the United States that he may turn into a professional career.

The aforementioned journal, Iblnews, indicated that the percentage of Hispanics in the United States Army is 7.5 percent, which is quite low compared to other minorities. Of the Hispanics who join the Armed Forces, 92 percent are privates or corporals, and other ranks at the bottom of the military hierarchy. That is to say, the United States promises the Green Card, the license to work and reside in the country as well as naturalization, in exchange for being cannon fodder in an absurd war that is not going to liberate anyone. Honestly, it does not seem like a fair exchange to me.

No Hispanic is obligated to offer his life because this is not his debt. In exchange for a salary, the majority of which are unfair, he must take a job. However, above everything, moral reasons that would justify his obligation to participate in an absurd war do not exist.

Translated by Mitchell Cowen Verter

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