“A man shouldn’t be stripped from his banner regardless of anything”

                                                                                                             -John Riley

When I was 9, I was intrigued by my bloodline of warriors from my past family members, Chichimecans to present day, Chichimecan warriors to Villistas to Cristeros to National Soldiers. Years pass, one day I was 11, I had a view of opposing the Chinese, Koreans, Russian, and Palestinians. Years continue and I became 12, reasoning kicked in, why do I want to fight for the country that built a wall on the border of my country, kicked my people out, and call them slurs?

In Mexico, during the rainy season, between a Sierra and a Cerro there I stayed in my town of Cotija. At the dining table, family gathered around, Pozole, pan, and jamaica juice passed to everyone for a good ol’ family reunion, stories and laughter filled the table as we started eating. 

“Hijo,” My dad called, I turn to him and chin up in acknowledgment.

“Tell them what do you want to be when you grow up.” My dad, a proud US citizen, proud Cotijense, he knew what I WANTED to be when I grow up, what I told him 3 years ago, I wanted to be a USAF pilot, However, he didn’t know what I WANT to be when I grow up. Shyness took over rapidly but I preferred responding instead of remaining silent.

“Mexican Marina… part of the UNOPES,” I said.

My dad’s face changed from an excited smile to a face of pure disappointment.

“No, Hijo, this country is full of corrupts and ignorant cowards.”

Words powerful enough to silence a table, a house even. I looked down at my plate of pozole with embarrassment, as I look up to take a look at everyone else, riddled with a face of concern or shame except for one, the old, wise face of my grandpa which is filled with pride and happiness.

After that day, I was put into a conversation with my dad, that conversation led to an argument that stated that Mexico had nothing, they don’t pay much, they don’t have any power nor they give any benefits, they just protect cartels. My grandpa overheard the conversation and came into my room as my dad left and sat down in front of me, he studied me a bit and exhaled. 

“Look, Mijo, sure ya are right that we don’t have tanks, jets, or a powerful navy but our flag still stands without them because of people like you, having pride and love for this country. When we attacked the Japanese in the philippines with the Americans, we only lost 1 plane out of 25 while the Americans lost 400, we sent 300 soldiers and only 80 died and the yanks sent 1 million and 16 thousand died. We have something they dont have that make us powerful and its the mentality of staying in the fight even when we dont have the ammunition to do so, just like you. I seen you play those games ‘Squad’ and whatever else where you still stay in the fight with whatever you got left, what you think we did? We picked up our machetes and chased those foreigners off our land!”

“Grandpa, thats just a game,” I replied.

“So you wouldn’t do it in real life?” He commented back, I stayed silent.

“We have all these gifts from god; resilience, knowledge, our terrain, our mentality, our strength, our culture, our ancestry, we have all these beautiful things, hell our anthem even says that there is a soldier in every son! And how true it was when those french came, we sent them straight to hell and they had more than twice our number and half our compas were civillians, those french ran like hell away. When that rain came and wet all the gunpowder, we didnt have guns and we still attacked with our machetes and thats how we went from then on while Uncle Sam ran to his bombs and missiles.” He said with a short chuckle.

“They can’t even fight 2 guys in a mountain without dropping a 50 km bomb on them while we have to go after them, not having these bombing jets are probably the best choice we done. Even then all those foreigners while simply die here because they can’t defend themselves from this terrain and our people will kill them and bury them in their flags because we don’t like any other flag flying over us and we stand over these racists just like you, you do the same thing and you can’t say you dont because you do and you, mijo, you live it.” He chuckles again with a raspy voice.

“Alright well you maybe made your point with planes but you do know we are at a time where tanks end up steamrolling anyone, if the US or the French attack, they will crush us with their tanks.” I replied. His face turn into a smile while he tries to hold in a laugh.

“‘A country doesn’t need tanks to take on giants.’ You said that once on that ‘Iron of hearts’ game, and were you right? I mean I don't know but it looked like Europe and Japan were yours afterward, oh yeah and the US seems to have green borders now instead of Blue as well. And you are right, I mean here it's half mountains, when have you ever seen a tank go up a mountain? Never. We will just blow their tanks up while our terrain hides us, told you we have terrain and knowledge as gifts, no? Even then, by the end of the day, you would be defending racists if you choose to fight for the Americans." I nodded with understatement. His eyes narrow as he places his hand on my shoulder and said,

"Come back to me after you locked your choice.". I nodded as he stood up and walked out the room.

I'll be honest, he was right about everything. We had nothing and still manage to maintain our independence. We were born warriors and we were given the courage and capabilities of one, throughout history we came from a bloodline of warriors that defended this country from every foe that dared tarnish our banner. It's my duty and my calling to defend the country that I love, not the one that cold shoulder us, because I don't want to stand in another country watching Mexico burn while I fight for a country that doesn't even respect us. There is a soldier in every Mexican son and it's up to us to defend our banner till we can't no more.