The Voice of a Claim That Demands Justice
Three decades have passed since the world celebrated Armistice Day, on November 11, 1918. On that memorable day, at eleven o’clock, hostilities ended for the nations that had fought in the air, on the ground, and on the high seas. During these thirty years, many people have been able to see the terrible hardships the war visited upon civilians and the soldiers who lived the dangers and horrors of those dreadful battles.
We, the survivors of the war, observed and continue to witness man’s capacity to be inconsistent. Under different circumstances we might have agreed that my observations, written as the events unfolded, could have been easily taken as “complaints that were out of order,” but they stand on increasingly solid ground. I have labored patiently for the last ten years to prepare my views for public presentation and have waited for the right time during the last five years.
The time to publish has arrived, especially because of the recent events in our nation’s history. This has prompted us to act. We are no longer the only complainants without a cause, as some would still insist on calling us. If our bitterness once caused us to doubt that we would ever receive justice for our great sacrifice to the nation, recent occurrences tell us we were not far from the truth. Insofar as the ingratitude we might receive, we could point to the guns and violence directed at the men, women, and children last year in Washington. The victims were defenseless veterans and their families who had come to the Capitol on a crusade demanding payment from the government for their services to the nation. We can agree that this might not have been the best time to make demands, even if conditions were enough to otherwise cause revolts and revolutions, but neither did their actions justify deploying armed troops who did not hesitate in using asphyxiating gases against the wives and children of the same men who in 1918 defended our flag in foreign lands.
Like a disturbing voice from the past, the memory of the war of 1918 reminds us that we have not raised a memorial equal to the martyred sacrifice the American soldiers of Mexican descent offered for us. Grateful people have erected so many monuments on the old battlefields that France has placed limits on the number and type of structure that can be built. The press tells us that even the animals—horses, dogs, and pigeons—that died like heroes for our cause have warranted statues that safeguard their memory with dignity.
We sounded the first alarm of our pending responsibility in 1928, but self-serving and base individuals divided us and blocked our way. Some people could not bring themselves to understand the difference between the intrinsic value of the idea and what could be classified as a personal motivation. The proposal stood on its merits and favored us, but we could not move forward and postponed the project. Men fall, ideas last. We do not lose hope that we will see the grand monument rise majestically in our lifetime in a Texas city, or in San Antonio. We wish to erect it in the Alamo city, on the Main Plaza, to the east of the Casa de Cortes and in front of the old San Fernando Cathedral.
We have published the book against all odds. This has been the history of the book since its beginning. The diary was born amid the sad and historically significant events of 1917, when our nation entered the global conflict. Gathering the facts required that we risk everything, including our very lives.
Fifteen years have passed and the nations of the world still do not have the peaceful and friendly relations that existed before the war. Many of my people have died and been forgotten. It pains us to see cases like the wife and children of our fellow veteran Hipólito Jasso who live in oblivion, abject poverty, and isolation in Beeville, Texas. This reminds us that we were right when we stated before the grave of Simón Gonzáles of Martindale, Texas, the hero of Aincreville, “No, my friend, the war for us will not end when we finish with the Germans, unless they finish with us first. We will have to face a more difficult fight, a battle in the heart of the Nation, against the people from Martindale who killed your father and unjustly sent you to war.”
Future generations will continue to present our demands over the lack of gratitude shown to the Bonus Expeditionary Force in Washington.
What should we say about our own who kept us from completing our monument by saying, “We should not be doing this. It is the responsibility of the government that took you to war,” or “We will contribute but it must not say anything Mexican. We fear this will provoke more racial prejudice and hate. The Anglos may not like it.” You fainthearted souls of limited nationalist vision, blinded by the glare of personalities, lacking a principled education and trumpeting pessimism, you carry the complex of inferiority and are incapable of rising above your depraved surroundings.
We need more sacrifices, and these offerings require more broad-minded men prepared to fight for the common good of our raza.