Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22,
a rifleman with the Marines, died in a firefight March 21 near
Umm Qasr.
Born in Guatemala, Gutierrez
held permanent U.S. resident status, which he obtained in 1999.
At 14, with his parents dead,
Gutierrez followed the path of 700,000 of his countrymen to
California. He made the 2,000-mile journey from his Guatemala
City neighborhood without entry papers. He hopped 14 freight
trains to get through Mexico. U.S. immigration authorities
detained him.
Fernando Castillo, Guatemala’s
consul general in Los Angeles, says the United States doesn’t
deport Guatemalan minors who arrive without family. Gutierrez
was made a ward of Los Angeles Juvenile Court. He was placed in
a series of group homes and foster families. He learned English
and finished high school.
When he reached 18, he got
residency documents, Castillo said.
Marcelo Mosquera, a machinist
from Ecuador, and his wife, Nora, were the last couple that
sheltered the lanky teenager. They cared for two younger foster
children, as well, at their home in suburban Lomita, said Hector
Tobar, a family friend.
Neighbors told the Los Angeles
Times that Gutierrez acted as the big brother, taking the
younger kids to the nearby McDonald’s.
Tobar said Gutierrez talked of
becoming an architect but put college plans on hold to join the
Marine Corps a year ago. Jackie Baker, the Mosqueras’ adult
daughter, told Spanish-language KVEA-TV here that Gutierrez
“wanted to give the United States what the United States gave to
him. He came with nothing. This country gave him everything.”
The U.S. Embassy notified
Gutierrez’s older sister, his only surviving relative, of his
death. He will be buried in Guatemala at her request, Castillo
said
Guatemalan
family remembers fallen son
When Engracia Sirin Gutierrez
heard the pounding at the front door, she knew it had to be bad
news.
It was 2:30 a.m. Saturday, March 22, and a group of six officials, including John
Hamilton, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, had
arrived to tell her that her brother had been killed in the
fighting in Iraq.
On Friday, Marine Lance Cpl.
Jose Gutierrez, 22, became one of the first combat casualties of
the war, killed in battle around the port city of
Umm Qasr.
“It was difficult to believe,”
Sirin said March 25. “I thought it was a mistake.”
Sirin said her brother left
Guatemala at 11 and traveled by train alone across Mexico,
looking for a better life in the United States. He found a
foster family in Lomita, Calif., where he went to high school.
In September, Gutierrez became a rifleman with the Marines.
“Be proud of me because I’m
going to be a soldier,” Sirin remembers her brother telling her
when he joined up.
Sirin said the last time she
spoke to her brother was by telephone on New Year’s Eve. “He
told me, ‘Sister, take care of yourself because I’m going to
war,”’ she said.
On a simple wooden chest of
drawers in her four-room home, a single candle shed light on
photos of her brother in uniform.
In California, an American
flag hung at half-staff outside the home of Gutierrez’s foster
family. The front porch was lined with pots of geraniums, each
with a flag and a sign that read “United We Stand.”
His foster mother, Nora
Mosquera, said Gutierrez never forgot the sister he left behind
in Guatemala and always hoped to bring her to the United States.
His body will be returned to
Guatemala for burial in his homeland.
“This is his country,” Sirin
said. “Yes, he left, but he did so because he had to.”
Sirin, 32, said her parents
were killed when she and her brother were very young. Both
siblings quit primary school to go work and Gutierrez landed a
job at a steel factory. The last time she saw him was on the day
he left for the United States 11 years ago.
After he settled in
California, he began to call her every week and eventually sent
gifts, money and pictures of himself back to her, Sirin said.
Sirin said her brother had
dreamed of becoming an architect or playing soccer for a popular
Guatemalan team.
“He was sweet, respectful and
was everybody’s friend,” Sirin said
