Saturday, November 25, 2006

The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez

Is the title of a new documentary by Heidi Specogna about the first American soldier killed in Iraq in 2003...ironically by other American soldiers.

Like some 30,000 of the US service members that participated in the invasion that March, José Antonio was still waiting for his green card. It was awarded posthumously.

He was a civil war orphan picked up by La Casa Alianza in Guatemala City that later, at the age of 22, travelled 4000 km overland to the US. Although detained by la migra he managed to convince them that he was just 17 and therefore entitled to asylum. He went to school, studied hard and enlisted in the Marine Corps after his graduation.

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