Bienvenidos otra vez a La Voz Newspaper. In this issue we are focused on the 75th
Anniversary of D-Day.
This battle which started on June 6th, 1944, was the offensive
that turned the tide and forced Adolf Hitler’s army into a retreat.
Thousands of lives were lost and many soldiers who died in Europe
ended up being buried there. Dave Gutierrez, in his book, Patriots
from the Barrio, recounts the many sacrifices that Mexican
Americans made in this effort to push the Germans out of
France.
Antonio P. Santos
It is not lost on many of us what the cost of war can be especially when
one loses a family member. In my own family, my uncle, Antonio P. Santos
was one of the 103 soldiers from Uvalde, Texas who did not back
alive. For years his photo in uniform hung in the living room of my
grandparent’s house in Stockton, California where they relocated
after the war. He was as they say in Spanish, el concentido de la
familia.
Today we are reminded that hate and bigotry are still alive. Today we have
a President of the United States that divides people with accusations
and labels. He pits people against one another much like Hitler did as he rose to
power even before the start of WWII.
Some have commented recently that if we are not careful, we may be
headed in that same direction. Others disagree and say that we
are already several stages into that process.
To be sure, when a society stops paying attention to the leaders
around them and doesn’t question or hold them accountable for
their actions, there will come a time when one looks up and decides to
complain, but it is too late. Let us hope that time never comes again.
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Copyright 2019 by Alfredo Santos. For the complete issue of this month’s La Voz, visit: http://www.lavoznewspapers.com