Today, President Obama held a public discussion on his agenda for closing Gitmo. This sub topic of the overall 
policy of our country’s defense and war on terrorism stirs so much passion that it brought out one of the architects of the previous administration’s policies, former Vice-President Cheney. These two polarities have a small paragraph in their military playbook but none the less very important to Hispanics. Our people have always played a part in the defense of our country. When I saw firsthand the traveling memorial of the Vietnam War many were the names of Hispanic descent. According to the most recent statistics,
“Hispanics in the Military (2007) – ….. from the Pew Hispanic Center have indicated an increase in the number of Hispanics on active duty in the military to 122,255 in 2007. This Hispanic military population represented 11.06 percent of the total military of 1,105,470. In the same year, the Heritage Foundation estimated that Hispanics and Latinos represented 12.93 percent of total recruits.”
Hispanics just like every brave soldier have fought side by side to defend our country and way of life. Per capita Hispanics have been the most decorated soldiers in the battle field.
And the moons riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But its written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
Were fools to make war
On our brothers in arms
Some of these are time and death.
Sources:
Hispanic in the U.S. Military
http://latinola.com/story.php?story=7475
Living a nightmare with no end in sight.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/28/Ricardo_Sanchez.jpg/300px-Ricardo_Sanchez.jpg
Hispanic Perspective on American History
http://www.seguindescendantshp.com/hispanic.htm
Lyrics to song Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits
Saturday, May 23rd 2009 at 9:05 pm |
Great blog. Thank you for featuring the Latino soldier.