[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 25, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S4372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     LANCE CORPORAL JOSE GUTIERREZ

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a true 
hero--to one of the first Americans to have fallen in combat in Iraq 
and make the ultimate sacrifice. His name: Jose Gutierrez, a lance 
corporal in the United States Marine Corps. He was just 22 years old.
  Corporal Gutierrez arrived in the United States when he was a 16 year 
old orphan, having left poverty-stricken circumstances in Guatemala 
City and a country racked by a brutal civil war.
  He traveled over 2,000 miles by foot, north through Mexico, in search 
of a better life here in the United States.
  Like so many immigrants, his past was soon eclipsed by his new life 
as an American. He was taken in by the Mosquera family of Lomita, CA. 
Nora and Max Mosquera had begun helping immigrant foster children when 
their own children had grown.
  ``He joined the Marines to pay back a little of what he'd gotten from 
the U.S.,'' Max Mosquera said. ``For him it was a question of honor.''
  A tall and quiet young man who enjoyed soccer and chess, Jose learned 
English quickly and had plans to study architecture.
  He became an infantry rifleman with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine 
Regiment. He enlisted exactly 1 year ago, on March 25, 2002, and 
arrived at Camp Pendleton, CA, in early September.
  Corporal Gutierrez died in battle, around 4 a.m. on Friday. He was 
struck by enemy fire while fighting alongside fellow marines near the 
southern Iraqi port city of Umm al Qasr.
  ``He was such a good kid,'' remembered Robert Nobles, a physical 
education teacher at North High in Torrance, where Corporal Gutierrez 
graduated in 2000.
  I have been told that news of his death has resonated throughout 
Guatemala. Every major newspaper, radio and TV station carried his 
story. He has been portrayed as a brave and selfless young man--which 
he most certainly was.
  I have also heard that it has been difficult to locate his one blood 
relative, his sister, who still lives in poverty in Guatemala City. The 
sister is arranging to have his body sent back to Guatemala, whereas a 
social worker in Los Angeles, Wendy Perlera, an acquaintance of 
Corporal Gutierrez, wants to bring his body back to L.A.
  Wherever Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez is finally laid to rest--in 
the country of his birth or the country which he was willing to give 
his life for--he will not be forgotten.
  Our thought and our prayers are with his family--with his sister in 
Guatemala and with the Mosquera family, who provided him with the 
emotional and financial support to pursue his dreams.
  The fact that he died so young--just 22--is tragic. Indeed, the loss 
of any young life is a tragedy. The fact that he was willing to fight--
and die--for his adopted homeland, has earned him the lasting 
admiration of Americans everywhere.

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