The Tattooed Soldier

                                                                The Tattooed Soldier

So basically the book that i am going to write about is The Tattooed Soldier by Hector Tobar. The tattooed Soldier is about a Latino immigrant named Antonio Bernal who is from Guatemala and a woman named Elena Longoria in which who was in love with Antonio and there experience living in Pico Union located in Downtown L.A. , so basically when Antonio came to the United states he spoke no English whatsoever and like many other immigrants coming to the united states, he did hard labor jobs like cleaning bathrooms and washing dirty dishes and mopping the floors to keep the restaurant nice and clean, Antonio worked at a restaurant called El Pulgarcito located on Vermont and Pico in Los Angeles. Meanwhile after a long day of work Antonio lived in a Apartment located in Pico Union with a roommate named Jose Juan who also worked at a restaurant which was a diner, Antonio and Juan got along because they had so much in common like working at a restaurant and they both were from Guatemala, but the only issue they had was that they barely had enough to pay rent for there apartment and eat a home cooked meal so they had money issues due to working a dead end Job and not getting paid a lot of money. Over the 5 months Antonio and Jose Juan had a hard time paying there rent so this landlord of the apartment named Mr. Hwang a korean elderly man told them that because u lag on paying your rent both have 30 days to leave or I will call the police to escort both of you out of the apartment complex, so Antonio Bernal and Jose Juan argued with Mr.Hwang and they said were will we go and live and Hwang said go sleep under the freeway because your issues are not my problem so when the 30 days past they both packed there stuff and left because they had no choice.

Antonio Bernal and Jose Juan walked to the freeway from there apartment complex for about 2 hours and slept under the 10 freeway located in Downtown L.A., and while they slept there other homeless that were there made them feel unwelcome and claiming some space that was there's so it was going to be a rough night for Antonio an Juan. Around in the middle of the night, Antonio found a dirty mattress with socks and dirt on it and they cleaned the mattress up with some towels that hey had from work and  they covered it with blankets so they slept on it for 2 nights. In the morning when they woke up they found other Latino Immigrants from Central America and they welcomed them so they can feel comfortable, as the days moved forward, Antonio encounter a woman named Elena Longoria. I'm going to talk about her in the next paragraph.

Elena Longoria was a Immigrant from Guatemala and during her time there, she was a socialist working with a political party called the Guatemalan National Resistance, she left her homeland country because she was marked for death by the Guatemalan government that was funded and controlled by the United States Government. Once Elena came to the United states she arrived like any other Immigrant homeless and she slept in the streets of Los Angeles for the past few weeks, over the time that's how she met Antonio Bernal and they felt some chemistry fro each other, suddenly some random stranger came by where they were located at and ask Antonio a question, Hi would you like to work for me in Spanish and Antonio replied in Spanish doing what, the stranger said cleaning and cooking for a American Family and Antonio said yeah why not and Elena was offered a job to babysit the white American child by the stranger. once they started both of them had doubts about working for the American Family but once they tried it out they were making a lot of money enough to buy a Condo so while they tried to work step by step Antonio and Elena decided to go on a date and as time moved forward they both decided to be in a relationship with each other and they were together for 5 years. By the time those 5 years were up they both decided to get married and live the life they always wanted especially coming from there country that was poor and what not, Suddenly Elena wasn't feeling so well so they decided to go to the hospital and the doctor said that Elena was diagnose with cancer and 8 months later she passed away and before that happened she and Antonio bought a Condo and by that time because both of them were making a lot of money theCondo was already paid off so before the tragedy happened they were both prepared for what would happen tomorrow so everything went secured before something like this would happen. So that's what the story of the Tattooed soldier is about, 2 love birds and a unexpected tragedy.


The way The Tattooed Soldier story relates to my life is that before I lived in a house, I lived in a small apartment with one bedroom and my twin brother and my older brother and my mom and dad. I grew up poor but not extremely poor but i was not rich either, but I will say that even though i was low income or poor my mother and father did the best they can to provide me a decent and good life to get an education,eat good food,wear nice clothes and take me to places to learn about life or reality. Before they did could that for me, they both migrated to the U.S. Illegally but once they came they both went to school to learn how to speak English and get there citizenship and it was a tough task but both my parents manage to do it. So the fact of the matter is that if you try to work hard and make smart decision's for the good of your future and a brighter tomorrow and to want to live a good or normal life, work hard and stay educated and become open minded you will get there and its not impossible.