by José de la Isla

HOUSTON : On May 1, Mexico President Felipe Calderón commemorated the 62nd anniversary of his country’s 201st Air Squadron.

During World War II the unit saw action in the Pacific as part of the Allied Forces.

This year marks the first time a Mexican chief executive has participated in a public event commemorating the squadron. Delivering a policy speech, Calderón only tangentially referred to the occasion.

German submarines had torpedoed two Mexican ships in the Gulf of Mexico before our neighbor’s entry into the war. An anti-submarine air patrol was formed to hunt German U-boats. In May 1943, Mexico severed relations with the Axis powers following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Then in 1944, Mexico sent Un presidente y un caballo rinden tributo al Escuadrón 201the air squadron to attach with General Douglas MacArthur’s intended invasion of the Philippine Islands, as well as other missions.

There are many stories about the Escuadrón 201, passed on mostly as family lore. An airman once told me how, near the end of their mission, the members serving in the Philippine jungles melted down Coke bottles to sculpt a statue of an eagle and serpent, Mexico’s national symbol, to etch their role.

As an adolescent, I would have paid little attention to the details except for the fact that my mother’s relatives in California had a connection to the squadron.

Tradition at public events has for six decades, as it was following President Calderón’s speech, to call the roll for the eight fallen squadron members. Lt. Javier Martínez Valle, my mother’s cousin, is one of them.

Back then, Mexico was part of North America’s first line of defense if an invasion came. Today, the very idea of a Security and Prosperity overlay to the North American Free Trade Agreement is looked upon with suspicious eyes by some in our country. Any notion of reliance on Mexico is outlandish.

How much they don’t know! Sometimes important events are removed from public view for political convenience.

It’s as if history is a movie and we are the extras in it. But when you know what happened, it’s another story.

About ten years ago, a contingent of the octogenarian 201st Squadron came to Houston to march in a Memorial Day parade. At a restaurant in the East End, a member of the Jewish WWII Veterans’ Committee showed up to pay his respects. A nephew of Colonel Antonio Cárdenas Rodríguez, the wing commander, attended. He related an anecdote about how his uncle had been an observer of Nazi movements in North Africa with Wild Bill Donovan, founder of the United States’ modern intelligence community.

At a wreath ceremony in Hidalgo Park, a small crowd, mostly too young to have lived the history, showed up after hearing on the radio about the squadron members’ presence. Perhaps remembering their parents’ tales about the Mexican Air Corps participating in missions with the Flying Tigers, they wanted verification.

A cowboy arrived at the park on horseback. His steed bent and bowed in front of the airmen and the flags and the guide-on banners.

Even a horse knows how to pay homage. It was a simple gesture, but even better than that of a southern president with an agenda. It was an act superior to any northern president who fails Ñ except in secret sessions Ñ to recognize how our national security depends on friendship and the alliance with our neighbor nations.

Maybe our public attitude has hit a low because such stories aren’t made public.

That’s sad. It gives the current crop of presidential candidates a chance to drive a bigger wedge for career advancement.

­[José de la Isla, author of “The Rise of Hispanic Political Power” (Archer Books, 2003) writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail: joseisla3@yahoo.com].

by Marvin J. Ramirez

We are approaching to election day on Tuesday June 3, when San Francisco voters will decide whether they want to open the gates of hell to thousands of families and low-income people who live in San Francisco.

Most of these people live in houses or apartments that are rent-controlled, which means that their landlords cannot increase their rents for more than 4 to 7 percent annually, or banks cannot evict tenants when they take possession of a house or apartment, unless the owner moves in. And this only is allowed to properties built before 1997.

On the ballot is Prop. 98, which will undo the rent control law in San Francisco, so helping landlords to evict their tenants, and then rent the units to new tenants for more money. Because many of these families have children, it will probably push many of them to leave the city, and consequently their children will be removed from their schools and friends. All this will be done for the sake of making more money by greedy people. It will change the face of our neighborhoods.

However, if you voters don’t go out and vote, and this proposition passes because of that inaction, there is an alternative solution. Also in the ballot will be Prop, 99, which prohibits Prop. 98 to eliminate rent control.

So, it is in your hands to stop Prop. 98, and help Prop. 99 to pass.

­by Margine Quintanilla R.

Hogar Siervas del Divino Rostro houses 200 girls and some young boys between a few months and 17 years of age.

You are invited to a reception in support of Gerardo Sandoval for Judge. Gerardo has a proven track record and will make a great Judge. Join us for a glass of wine & tapas and an opportunity to hear the candidate, understand why Gerardo’s running for Judge and why that it is important to the community.

Please join us in supporting Gerardo and together we can make a difference! Thurs, May 29th- 5: 30pm- 7:00pm, at Gold Key Realty, 1000 Valencia Street @ 21st Religious leaders join to protect the neediest More than 50 religious leaders of diverse tendencies, will join efforts to request to the Mayor of San Francisco to designate a part of the current San Francisco budget, for the homeless and low income people.

This event will take place on Thursday, June 5, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at San Francisco City Hall. These children at present are attended in “Zacarías Guerra Home Residence of Managua ” and “ Orfanatorio Siervas of the Divine Face! in El Crucero, Nicaragua.

The event will be accompanied by the group Los Ramblers, and the Martha Vaughan Show & Héctor Silva y su Sabor, and will be held at the State Room in So. San Francisco, 306 Barden Ave. Cover charge $50, which includes dinner.

For more info call at 415-259-1498.

Escapes of Alcatraz

Enjoy healthily being present at a unique sports event, with athletes from around the world who are going to try to conduct an escape from Alcatraz. They will have to experience difficult tests like swimming 1.5 miles in cold ocean waters, ride 18 miles of mountainous area in motorcycle.

Do not miss this phenomenal event that will be held on June 7, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. There will be free outdoor space for the public. For more info call 415-380-8390, or write to Meghan@spinpr.com.

Stars of jazz and music African Latin in the only presentation

Omar Sosa and John Santos will hold one only dual presentation, where they will share the most important elements that characterize their music. Sosa is recognized jazz artist, composer and musician, Santos Is four-time Grammy Award candidate, and is one of the main exponents of Afr0-Latin music in the world.

The event will take place Centro Cultural La Peña, at 3105 Shuttuck Ave., Berkeley, and is $15 cover charge. For more info call 510-849-2568.

by Justin M. Ruhge

Justin Ruhge

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Hispanic Link News Service regularly presents analyses and perspectives of Hispanic authorities and pro-immigrant activists on the issue of U.S. immigration. Today begins a two-part series by Justin M. Ruhge, a retired aerospace executive now living in Lompoc, Calif., whose countervailing views reflect those regularly expressed by some of our readers. Ruhge is an officer with I.N.C. — Initiatives for National Change).

The growing border encounters with more and more illegal aliens of up to a million a year is only the tip of the socio-economic problems in Mexico. Nearly 70 years of PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) dictatorship has resulted in a two-level caste system of very wealthy and very poor. The last revolution, which was to reduce the power of the patrón system and redistribute the wealth to the poor, has failed. The country is corrupt and degenerate.

The present retrograde system exists with a huge population explosion, the result of which is to force the Mexicans deeper into poverty and to force a “run for the border” by ever-growing numbers of Mexicans who cannot get jobs, food or education there. Any small gains in quality of life in the past 70 years have been wiped out by the population explosion and a general lack of new development for the majority in the country of Mexico.

The majority of Mexicans who come to the United States are uneducated and unskilled Indians. They are not the well-educated and well-dressed blondes that you see on Mexican TV every day. They do not know how to read or write Spanish, not to mention English. So why do we print the California ballot in Spanish?

Education in Mexico is just for the rich. Two-thirds of its people have no education above sixth grade. Most Mexican schools run two sessions a day instead of the one we have in the United States because they do not have the facilities or the teachers or the funds for more of both. Mexicans who go to school at all get only half the education.

Frequent visits to Mexico by this writer over the past 50 years show little improvement in the infrastructure throughout the country. It is equivalent to the United States in the 1930s. Yet here is the most advanced country in the world, the United States of America, aligned with Mexico on an equal basis through NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement — a horrible mistake.

Mexico has a poor civil rights record. Any citizen can be treated harshly by murder and imprisonment by judges and police appointed by the only party for 70 years, the PRI. Yet, this longest enduring dictatorship in the world and most backward banana republic is shored up by loan guarantees and business from the most democratic and advanced country in history, the United States. Why? The Mexicans love our money but they hate us for it!

The United States has spent billions to undo dictatorships like Russia, Germany, Japan and all the Eastern Bloc nations that were communist, but we do nothing to eliminate the Mexican dictatorship on our doorstep.

Why is that? Could it be that our leaders do not want to lose the great source of dope so close at hand to the American and Canadian markets? Is that why NAFTA was really pushed through Congress, to improve the supply lines? Hispanic Link.

Next week: Part II. The United States must act quickly and decisively. (Readers may contact the writer by email at jaruhge@hotmail.com).