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Latinos For Peace
The Peace Movement is alive and well in Latino communities across the nation and in Puerto Rico. August 29 Latino led press conferences in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, El Paso, and San Juan announced a nationl effort “to demilitarize our public schools and community colleges” said Fernando Suarez de Solar spokesperson for the effort called Latinos Opt Out of Miltary Recuritment at the campaigns San Diego press conference.
Suarez del Solar is the father of Jesus Suarez del Solar who was one of the first U.S. Marines killed in the spring 2003 invasion of Iraq. Since then the father has been traveling through out the nation speaking against the war and mobilizing Latino military families to oppose the war. Now he has helped launch a major counter recruitment drive aimed at education and motivating students and parents to stop public schools from releasing students’ personal contact information to military recruiters.
This national Latino counter recruitment effort has been joined by a newly formed Latinos For Peace group, which has launched an open letter/petition drive nationwide where Latinos are signing on to jointly call for “U.S. Out of Iraq! Bring Our Troops Home Now. Some 1500 Latinos from 20 states and Puerto Rico have put their names on the open letter in the first 2 weeks of the petition campaign.
The campaign chose August 29 as the kick off day to coincide with the 35th Anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War on Aug 29 1970 when 30,000 Latinos and progressive supporters marched through the barrios of East Los Angeles opposing that war and the high rate of Latino casualties.
At the Latino opt out Los Angeles Press conference, Rosalio Munoz who chaired the 1970 Chicano Moratorium and is now a coordinator of Latinos for Peace said “in the Vietnam era we said our front line is in the struggle for social justice in our barrios, not in Vietnam, today we say the same about the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Back then we had to educate ourselves about draft deferments, today we need to educate ourselves about opting out.”
The “opt out” issue stems from the Bush Administrations “No Child Left Behind” education funding program that requires schools to give the military information on their students or face loss of federal funds. To avoid this breach of privacy parents have to formally tell the schools not to release the information on their children to the military forces.
Parents and peace activists have joined in a national opt our movement; in many areas the movement is strong. In a Montclair New Jersey school district 92 percent of the parents have asked the schools not give the information to the military. “We need to do the same kind of thing in the barrios, says Munoz.
Suarez de Solar says the next step is to have “early morning peace vigils” at barrio high schools giving information about “opting out”: to the student s After the press conferences Aug 29 in San Diego and Chicago volunteer activists in each city gave out 1500 information sheets about opting out to parents in Latino neighborhoods to begin the out reach.
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