Recruiting in the Barrio
Rodr?guez, Luis J.
Writing to America Luis J. Rodriguez Recruiting in the Barrio Cristina and Jessica were high school students from the predominantly Mexican barrio of East Los Angeles when the United...
...The whole family moved to California at the recruiter's request...
...It is true that there is much disagreement over the reality and extent of the dangers, and of the best means of approaching the problems which are agreed to exist...
...However, there is no doubt that some men, at least, are recognizing that men face a formidable task in halting the progress of destruction and in stabilizing the environment...
...spoke at Brentwood School, a wealthy private academy in L.A...
...Fighting unfounded and unwinnable wars for the benefit of a wealthy class and the war-driven politicians who cater to them is...
...Writing to America Luis J. Rodriguez Recruiting in the Barrio Cristina and Jessica were high school students from the predominantly Mexican barrio of East Los Angeles when the United States invaded Iraq in March of 2003...
...They have to undergo their own application process...
...JUSTIN RENTERIA "None, ever," a school official told me...
...They had become friends in middle school, and both emerged as community activists...
...This irresponsible action has at last brought planet Earth almost to its knees...
...The Earth in Travail — It may be said that at last some men* are beginning to take seriously the dangers posed by global warming and the consequent climate changes that this is bringing about...
...few indeed realize the true scale of damage already done...
...He speaks to many audiences, but in particular to Latinos...
...This can be achieved only by a complete reconstruction of the present political, economic and social structures...
...County High School for the Arts, housed at California State University...
...It is also true that even the most aware and concerned of men know little of the extent and complexity of the problems...
...Davis cites the case of Fernando Suarez del Solar, who allowed his son Jesus to enlist even though they lived below the border...
...The question may be asked: can planet Earth be saved and by what means...
...They are also the most toxic and hazardous to man and the lower kingdoms...
...This being so, the pillaging of the Earth, the cavalier waste of resources, is seen as only natural and necessary...
...Maitreya, you can be sure, will not be long in addressing this urgent problem and in presenting his solutions...
...Jesus was killed during the first week of the invasion, becoming number seventy-four on the Pentagon's official casualty data base...
...Citizenship is not automatic if you serve, he emphasizes, and families cannot be given citizenship even if a member is in the armed forces...
...Man has but little choice: the urgency of the task demands immediate action...
...The problem of pollution is such a case...
...and its mostly Mexican population for service in Afghanistan or Iraq...
...Here at home, the Pentagon seeks Latinos through the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) that draws from poor high schools, GED programs, and alternative schooling options, according to Deborah Davis in the Silicon Valley-based Metroactive weekly...
...We should not sacrifice any more of our children—regardless of race or community—to this nonsensical and illegal war...
...Cristina attended Garfield High School...
...On July 3, 2002, Bush signed an executive order that "expedited naturalization for aliens and noncitizen nationals serving in an active-duty status in the Armed Forces of the United States...
...they are so toxic and destructive that they must be given high priority to overcome...
...He was twenty years old...
...An AP story says that the U.S...
...The first step, he will advocate, is the acceptance of the urgency which many today deny...
...And the teachers and staff welcoming...
...As in other working class communities, the military focused on East L.A...
...Defending our country is not the problem...
...But this is a lengthy, often confusing, and not always successful process...
...He must learn to simplify his demands on the planet and learn the beauty of simplicity and the joy of sharing...
...He's been writing, speaking, and organizing for peace abroad and in our streets for decades...
...and by means which involve the transformation of the present modes of living by the majority of men...
...For example, as blacks obtained higher educational levels, contributing to lower enlistment numbers, Latinos signed up in greater numbers— particularly if they were recent immigrants and spoke no English...
...that requires more than $20,000 a year for admittance...
...schools—like those in many poor African American and Latino communities—have more than 50 percent dropout rates...
...East L.A...
...War brings out many heroes as does the struggle for peace, heroes like Cristina, Jessica, Fernando Suarez, and Arlene Inouye, who know the truth and are helping others from falling into the recruiting traps the Pentagon has laid to ensnare poor and unsuspecting citizens and noncitizens into the U.S...
...The Bush Administration has been dangling the carrot of citizenship in front of its recruits from the barrio...
...The paramount ambition of all so-called 'developed' countries is to achieve an ever higher percentage of growth of their economies to become, thereby, richer...
...Now man must see it as a top priority to remedy what he has hurt and so restore to health his ailing planet...
...When "Operation Iraqi Freedom" began, the young women noticed a number of military recruiters targeting Garfield and other East L.A.-area schools, although this was not happening at the predominantly white school for the arts...
...Without meaningful options for decent jobs or educational opportunities, many young men and women in the barrio signed up...
...The students, as always, were fantastic...
...Jesus was not even eighteen years old when his father co-signed the enlistment papers...
...schools like Garfield had five military recruiters for every college recruiter while well-off public and private schools—with majority white students—had none...
...area—with a 75 percent Latino student population—since the war began...
...Cristina and Jessica claimed East L.A...
...On all those levels the problems of pollution must be overcome...
...Although the school does have scores of college recruiters...
...Jessica, on the other hand, was an art student at the prestigious L.A...
...Some, however, require a science and a remedy as yet unknown to man...
...Man has ravaged and polluted the Earth, and severely damaged his own environment...
...The upper levels of nuclear radiation are beyond the present atomic technology...
...This program was created after the Vietnam War to recruit African Americans...
...The answer is a resounding YES...
...Today Fernando Suarez, now a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, is a leading anti-war advocate...
...The Pentagon hired market research firms to focus recruiting campaigns on issues—such as family pride, education, and citizenship—that would reach the large and growing Latino population in the United States and in Mexico, says Davis...
...Pollution takes many forms, some obvious and easily dealt with, if the will to do so exists...
...Military-commissioned studies found "a propensity to enlist" correlated with low educational achieve ment, according to Davis...
...military even attempted to recruit in Mexico...
...The most destructive of all, that caused by nuclear radiation, awaits discovery by Earth scientists...
...I confirmed this when I later Luis J. Rodriguez was arrested at sixteen during the 1970 Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War—at the time the largest anti-war demonstration in a community of color...
...and, in an economic world based on competition, to attain dominance and power, and so enjoy a higher standard of life...
...I did ask how many military recruiters visited their school...
...I'm on the board of the Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools, run by Garfield High School teacher Arlene Inouye, which has been educating teens about recruitment tactics in the L.A...
...military...
...Sharing, he will say, is the beginning of the process of change which will provide the answers to our woes and the rehabilitation of Earth...
...The effect of pollution on the quality of air, food, on animals, and on fish, in rivers and the oceans, is known but largely ignored...
Vol. 71 • December 2007 • No. 12
