(by Freeman Z)
I first met the Arredondos while recording career Army man, Author and B.U. Professor Andrew Bacevich speaking on US Foreign Policy in Roslindale.
It's a surreal scene in my memory. Carlos was so angry after hearing about the problems in policy that got his son killed.
Not long after this meeting, the Bacevich family lost their only son, also in Iraq.
Carlos and wife Melida Arredondo on Boston Common
Recordings
Recordings
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Videos
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Event Appearances
- 2008_03_19-Iraq 5th
- Kennebunk Impeach Rally (not posted)
- 2007_05_15-Salem (not posted)
- 2007_04_28-Boston Impeach Rally
- 2007_02_20-VFP-Markey (not posted)
Radio Announcement
(produced by 492 Cafe)
The Arredondos are amazing people. As I travel the East Coast, reporting on people's resistance to a Government gone haywire, there's nobody I see more often, and in so many different places, as these two people, driven by the loss of their son, whose photograph Carlos has held high at rallies, in meetings with elected officials, and most recently, at the premier of the movie "Body of War."
Carlos hit the national news on his 40th birthday, the day Alexander died, and the US Marine van came to his home with the dreaded announcement. Carlos told them to leave, but they remained, and eventually, he entered their empty van with fuel, and it ignited. Purely because this was dramatic, the corporate-whore news aired the story, complete with helicopter footage of the flaming van.
But when the dust settled, and the burns healed, this handsome man who emigrated from Costa Rica, (earning his US citizenship in 2007,) knew he had to do something to honor his son's life and death. He does this by carrying the image of Alexander all over the country, often as part of a display he's created, some say obsessively, out of a pickup truck, with a trailer in tow. Sometimes the trailer dons a casket that he bought for this purpose. (Carlos says he himself will be buried in it some day.) Sometimes the trailer is filled with an arrangement of crutches, crosses and artificial limbs.