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elcomputo

Nov 8, 2003, 7:47 PM

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American Legion?

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Someone told me today about a group of retired U.S. veterans in Guadalajara who have formed a group called the American Association or Association of Americans, or some such. Would anyone know anything about that? A Mexican woman told me about this, and it is possible she is thinking of the American Legion. Anyway, I am trying to find out what kind of services might be available to veterans who have chosen to live down here.

Uncle Jack

Nov 9, 2003, 4:21 AM

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Re: [elcomputo] American Legion?

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Try this for Legion posts in Mexico and Latin America:

http://www.amlegion-mexico.org/...oryPosts.html#MEXICO

There is also a group called the American Society of Guadalajara ( AMSOC ) that is open to all. I don't believe that they have a website any longer.

Uuuups....I was wrong: http://www.mexweb.com/amsoc.htm

uj

(This post was edited by Uncle Jack on Nov 9, 2003, 4:31 AM)

Carol Schmidt

Nov 9, 2003, 8:22 AM

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Re: [elcomputo] American Legion?

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There are two American Legion chapters in San Miguel (an internal feud split them into two, who knows the reason?) and I belong to the Women's Auxiliary of one of the chapters. Me, lifelong antiwar protestor, a member of the American Legion--my father the WWII veteran would be so proud. You only have to have a relative who was in the military to qualify.

The Auxiliary is terrific--they do layettes for the general hospital for new parents who come to the hospital with only newspapers to take their newborns home in, they decorated the children's wards of the hospital so they would be more cheery, and they supply school materials and computers to half a dozen of the poorest rural schools outside SMA. Members visit those rural schools regularly to bring them stuff like toothpaste and brushes and soap--the teachers tell us they have to teach hygiene to kids who have never seen a toothbrush.

The only reason I joined was because I heard that membership allowed you to get into the military hospitals in Mexico City and Guadalajara, supposedly the best in the country, at cheaper military rates, and I desperately needed any kind of medical arrangements I could qualify for at the time. I had a stereotype in mind of what the women would be like--all Republican conservatives who would not agree with a thing I believed and who would probably reject me because I am a lesbian. As it turns out, the Auxiliary is full of all kinds of women of all kinds of beliefs and I fit right in, accepted totally, and they are a great bunch.

I don't know much about the American Legion itself except that they put on a fantastic barbeque on July 4th! I can put you in contact with the president of the Auxiliary who is married to a honcho in the Legion if you want more information.

Carol Schmidt

esperanza

Nov 9, 2003, 11:10 AM

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Re: [elcomputo] American Legion?

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The American Legion Post 3, Guadalajara, is located at Calle San Antonio #143, Colonia Las Fuentes.

The American Society (AMSOC) is located in Guadalajara at Avenida San Francisco #3332, Colonia Chapalita.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

elcomputo

Nov 9, 2003, 12:03 PM

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Re: [Carol Schmidt] American Legion?

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Thanks for the information. (And thanks also to Uncle Jack and Esperanza.) I will use it. And, yes, you can put me in touch with the Auxiliary, thanks.

What I am trying to do is find some way of cutting back on the number of my trips to McAllen, where I have to go at least every three months for medical treatment at the VA clinic and to pick up my medications. (I know they are cheap in Mexico, but anything I get from the VA is only $7 a month. Worth the trip, but I'd still like to make it less often. Unfortunately, the VA will not send drugs into Mexico because Mexico does not allow it. Also, who knows how long Bush will allow this situation to go on; he has already cut VA funding.) And it would be nice, too, to know that I could get emergency care here, even if it is from the military.

I became a protestor with Vietnam. (I did my three years in the Army before Vietnam got hot.) And one of the reasons I came to Mexico was because I was so discouraged by public support of Bush's war on Iraq. (Has anybody seen the story in the NY Times that Saddam was ready to do a conditional surrender a week before the war started?)

So I have never had that good of an opinion of the American Legion. My father, a veteran of WW I, also had a jones about the Legion. He said that after that war to end all wars, most of the membership of the Legion consisted of small town Babbitts rather than real veterans. I do know that the Legion played a nasty role in getting MacArthur to use force against the Bonus Marchers during the Depression. They also figured prominently in Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" as head-cracking vigilantes who discouraged Okies from coming to California.

So, yes, I am pleasantly surprised by what you say. I am also going to look into that other group in Guadalajara.

Thanks.

Martin