Fernando Suarez del Solar, father of Jesus, who died a few months into the war, speaks to peace marchers in San Diego on the 4th anniversary of the War in Iraq.

I cannot think of a braver man in America, and perhaps in all the world, than Fernando Suarez del Solar. At a time of unprecedented scapegoating and rising hate crimes against Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States, after having lost his beloved son to the illegal war in Iraq, with very little English ability, this man continues to criss-cross the nation and the globe with his plea for justice and peace. He is Cindy Sheehan, if Cindy had been born in Mexico, if Cindy had traveled repeatedly to Iraq to help the children harmed by war there. 

I had the honor to meet Mr. Suarez some years back, and there was something of Ghandi to him. I am sad to say his recent emails have been depressing in tone, weary, as though he is close to giving up. He is stunned by the apathy, the brutality, and, worst of all, the hostility he has met in the Mexican and Mexican-American communities of the nation, where his message of peace, and his encouragement of Latino kids to stay OUT of the military (where we are dying in much higher proportion to our population size), is too often criticized as unpatriotic. God bless you, Mr. Suarez. Keep fighting the good fight, sir. You are a hero, and today I think of your son, and your loss, and I send you positive energy and love.