Alex Murillo
Portrait by: Leopoldo Peña
30a. American Soldiers in Exile; We Know We’re Going Home
“I feel that America has gotten its use out of me. I’ve done my time in America. I’ve done my time in the public-school system. I’ve done my time in the military. I’ve done my time in the federal prison system. So, America very well got their use out of me, used me thoroughly. I was happy to oblige but now I want to be home. I’m tired of being away from home. I’m tired of being exiled.”
30b. American Soldiers in Exile; We Know We’re Going Home
“Our group of veteran, our group of soldiers, is exiled right now. We are missing in action and our goal is to get ourselves back home. That’s our mission, that’s our battle, that’s our fight. And the thing is that they know this, they know we are out here right now. And they are the ones that trained us. And we are not gonna quit, we are not gonna give up. Tey trained us to fucken well to do that… so we are in it until the end. And the end result is that we’re gonna end up back home. Because what happens when we die? They ship our ashes back home and they bury us with honors, and they give our family a flag that is folded up and they give us our citizenship – that’s what happens when we die. So we know we are going home. But really the goal is to go home while we are still alive.”