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Interview with Alex Taylor, Latino Rights Advocate and AIUSA Volunteer

By Isabel Long

Alex Taylor del Cid, PhD.
Specialist in Chile and collaborator in Argentina
Nationality: Guatemalan

First of all tell me about yourself, what you do professionally. I understand that you work for an organization that tries to help Latinos in Washington D.C.
The work I do is for the Council of Latino Agencies. This is a community organization based in Washington, what the Council of Latino Agencies does is to conduct political investigations in benefit of the Latino community that lives in the area. It refers to the Washington metropolitan area, this means that it is not limited in helping Latinos living in the city, but also people living in Virginia and Maryland.


How would you describe Latinos' political and social inclusion in the area of Virginia, Maryland and Washington?
In terms of political and social inclusion, our community suffers severely. The problem is that centers of power, political centers and other institutions and organizations view Latinos as non permanent residents. In other words, politicians here in Washington tend to define us not necessarily as a part of this community, of this society, instead they believe that we come here but do not think of staying or sometimes they have the wrong impression that Latinos do not wish to be part of the community. This is not true, since the immigrants and the people that have been born here of immigrant parents have the desire of becoming part of this society, but they wish to do it in their own terms. They want people to respect their culture, their traditions, their beliefs and they also want to have access to the resources they need to progress in this society.

Now let us talk about Amnesty International. How did you get involved in this movement? What is your practical knowledge of Argentina and Chile?
Basically my work for human rights is something I have done because of my personal experiences. I was born in Guatemala, a country that has suffered severe political violence. I left the country more than twenty years ago. My family has suffered this political violence directly. I have friends that have also suffered the same violence and I grew up in an environment in which every day I could see the injustices experienced for example by Indigenous populations, women, poor people, workers and students. All this affected the way I view society. Needless to say, getting out of that kind of environment, I believed at that moment and believe now that it would not have been fair if I would have kept my mouth shut or if I would not have done anything to change these things.

My involvement in Amnesty International, as specialist in Chile and Argentina, is related to my personal experience and the way I see the world, but it is also related to my professional interests. I have a PhD. in Latin American History which is focused on Argentina and addresses issues of political violence.

The methods used during the cold war in Argentina have been compared with the methods used in the “war on terror” by the United States. What is your opinion about it?
Well, there are many similarities, but I do not wish to compare the methodology used in these two conflicts in detail. However, I believe that there are certain similarities that should cause a great deal of concern within the community, for example the fact that there are detainees whose conditions as Prisoners of War are not recognized and their names are unknown. This has happened in Argentina and Chile, where there have been missing persons. The national executive power in Argentina detained people suspected of being involved in subversive activities and then took them to prisons where they were tortured without their families knowing of it. Many of these people disappeared and nothing else was ever known about them.

In terms of the similarities that exist in the methodology used by the United States in the war on terror, it can be said that the practice of not revealing the names of many of these detainees is something of great concern. The fact of the abuses in Abu Ghraib, the torture of suspects, is something that in Argentina and Chile was rampant. So definitely, there are similarities.

Finally, what would you say to someone that wants to do something for human rights and is thinking of getting involved with Amnesty International?
I think that this work is very important and I prefer to believe that the majority of the people are good and have the intention of helping other human beings. I believe that an organization like Amnesty International brings to our communities, for example to the Latino community, the opportunity of doing something effective, something concrete to try to protect their rights and the community rights. At the same time it is a very valuable opportunity to get in contact with other persons with similar visions, or even to get to know others that do not have so similar visions but give us the opportunity to interact with those that not necessarily will share our commitment to human rights, but that communication is what allows us to change directly the principal mechanisms that enable these abuses. So, I believe that Amnesty International is an organization that provides many opportunities to those that wish to use them to help others to stop suffering these abuses that our family and friends have already suffered.