Guest Column

Fernando Suarez and Raoul Lowery Contreras – opposite forces.

By Pete Martinez

I read with attention the give and take, the unfortunate insults going back and forth between Raoul Lowery Contreras and Dorinda Moreno, Jorge Mariscal, and so many of the other who wrote condemning Contreras’ attack on Fernando Suarez. Contreras took exception at how Suarez is used by the left as the anti-war poster father. He used language that frankly I wouldn’t have used to describe Suarez’s taking money from those groups for his activities. But on the other hand, he was right in saying that Suarez should have disclosed that he is on the payroll of those organizations, just as the conservative commentators recently found to have been taking money to espouse paid for commentary, should have disclosed that.

What makes the Suarez case sad is that he lost his son in Iraq that is a real loss, a lifetime loss, a forever loss. It is understandable that the depth of pain felt by a grieving father would overflow into deep resentment towards the reason for such calamitous end to his beloved son. Before Suarez went on the payroll of the left wing organizations he was already decrying the Iraq war.

It was his words that gave value to those seeking propaganda ammunition – Suarez became a potentially valued anti-war propaganda arm. Suarez being approached by these groups and invited to participate plus receiving compensation to be able to do something his heart cried out for him to do – must have been God sent to his thinking. In his heart, it was a prayer come true, as reality is that no matter how one yearns to do something of value sheltering, feeding and clothing ones family is a daily priority. With one stroke he was able to do both.

Contreras accused Suarez of being uneducated only to find from counterpoint letters that this was not so. Suarez, according to some letters, was a child product of Mexico City’s elite Partido Revolucionario Institucional, the PRI party in power since the 1920s until 2000. This being true, he would be related to Suarez Torres a close ally of 1950s President Lopez Mateos, or of Suarez Colin governor of the state of Mexico during the same period. If, as the letter stated, Suarez was educated at the military academy, he would indeed be a child of the elite as that schools was “must-attend” for the sons of PRI elite and descendants of the revolution leaders.

This upbringing would also explain some of Suarez’s thinking and feelings about the US and war. All PRI connected were followers of the political line – “the US is a historical enemy of Mexico.” It was imbedded and took form in the “non-intervention” foreign policy in practice by every PRI administration. Part of this philosophy was traceable to US actions of land grabbing during the Mexican War, and other parts due to the numerous US interventions in Mexico. But there was also the part that the promotion was to excuse and divert attention to what the PRI itself was doing to Mexicans, but the children of the PRI would not be taught this, just be a part of their psyche.

Suarez, like many other Mexican citizens, most likely saw the US as the land of economic opportunity. And that is what drove him to settle in the US – it was not in search of democracy, freedom, liberty and all the other things that Americans think the US stands for – it was simply – economic advancement.

But like it happens with most immigrants – the children Americanize and their country becomes the US, their patriotic feelings are not towards a country they do not know.   They are instead directed towards the country that shelters them. And that is what happened to Suarez’s son – he Americanized, he became one with the US, he volunteered to serve in the most elite fighting machine the nation has – he became a Marine, and was proud of it.

This it seems was OK with Fernando Suarez, the father, as long as there was no war, the discipline and educational benefits were prized, and it was his son’s choice. But war came, and his son answered the call and gave his life.  It was one thing to be part of a fighting machine during peace, quite another during war, Suarez must have figured. His son did not choose to go to Iraq he was made to do it, he reasoned. The US has to be stopped; peace at any cost became his mantra.

Likewise Raoul Lowery Contreras has undergone Americanization in spades. He too was a US Marine. His love for the US led him to justify being a member of the Republican Party. Hard nose conservative style – individual responsibility, defend the country, “my country right or wrong,” and all those other philosophies and ideas that drive those who believe, truly believe the US is the greatest country in the world, but are intolerant of those whose ideas differ, but can and do love the country with equal fervor.

So he took exception to Fernando Suarez’s words and activities, particularly since the reason Suarez has an audience is because his son had been a Marine – like Contreras. He feels offended and believes the uniform is demeaned by the father’s actions.

And so the two contrary ideas exploded in the pages of HispanicVista -  two very opposite ideas crashed head on in a display of freedom of speech and opinion.

What a great lesson for us all – it’s too bad much of the arguments were in the form of personal insults.

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Pete Martinez is a Republican economic conservative and socially liberal. Contact at info@hispanicvista.com

This article appeared in HispanicVista.com on March 7, 2005