When I began to read from those who have served in the United States military, I quickly realized that the portrayals I have been exposed to in mainstream media and popular culture offer an extremely limited glance into the actual experience.
While listening to the stories Hispanic and Latinx veterans (and more broadly folks from marginalized backgrounds) of the United States military I had to reconsider judgements that I had previously accepted as truth.
In my direct experience, my former high school classmates that have enlisted are primarily Mexican and Black men from working class backgrounds. At my high school it was common to view Army and Marine recruiters (perhaps Navy and Air Force once or twice) in the cafeteria at lunch time, handing out pamphlets, conversing with students, and offering different types of merchandise in exchange for performing push-ups and pull-ups. A lanyard for ten, a shirt for twenty etc.
Ever since my sophomore year I was part of the AICE program (college-level curriculum classes) and often felt disconnected from the “regular kids.” To my knowledge, none of the “AICE kids” ever discussed the possibility of enlisting; we were college-bound. The same couldn’t have been said for the “regular kids”, as a matter of fact, I can recall a specific instance in which they were made to take the ASVAB Test (while we AICE kids were not) and provided no clear instruction as to why they were taking it. Indeed, the only reason I can recall it is because I overheard some classmates saying that they walked out right after realizing they did not have to take the ASVAB if they did not wish to join the military.
These types of events are not new; Dr. Paul Ortiz shared in his oral history interview that as he approached his high school counsellor during his senior year, he brought in various college brochure he had received after scoring well on the pre-SAT. He asked the counsellor, “Can you tell me how to get to college?” to which the counsellor replied “Paul, college is not for everyone.” The counsellor then quickly turned around and presented Dr. Ortiz a shiny brochure that read “Be all you can be! Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines!”
Not being able to continue on to college (for whichever reasons, but especially financial) is a recurring theme. However it is not the whole picture; there are several other factors that have led Latinos to join the armed forces. Further in the interview Dr. Ortiz shares that:
“All of my male elders that I knew as role models had been in the military – it was a rite of passage. And it’s very much an immigrant story where because we don’t have a lot of resources economically, joining the military for us means a claim on citizenship that we normally wouldn’t have. We don’t have any assets, we don’t have an inheritance, but we do have military service. You’ll see this is true in a lot of first, second, even third generation immigrant communities where military service is heavily, heavily valued for those reasons.” (Paul Ortiz VHP 003)
He then described the ‘claim on citizenship’ as:
“The claim on citizenship, and the ability to look someone in the eye and say ‘You may not like me because I am Italian, Black, or Hispanic…but by God I have served my country. You can’t take that away from me.’ Even Native Americans have that ethic, so that’s why the tie between service and citizenship is so crucial’.”(Paul Ortiz VHP 003)
I had not previously taken these reasons as motivators to join the U.S. armed forces. As a matter of fact, I was not aware of them in the first place. When conversations about the military arise in casual conversation it usually refers to the ‘macro-scale’, the interventions and intrusions in foreign affairs, public speeches from the highest ranking generals etc. Rarely have I heard extensive discussions on the ‘claim on citizenship’, and how lack of inheritance and resources systematically lead Latinos into enlisting. For many it is the only way out of poverty and circumstances which lead to less than desirable life outcomes.
On this Veterans’ Day weekend I think it is important to look past the image of Veterans as solely white soldiers, which are featured more prominently and preeminently than the Latinos, Chicanos, and other seemingly invisible minority groups that are and always have been part of the United States armed forces. Though these groups have not have received the recognition they have earned through strenuous participation, I think that just by mentioning their names we can begin to move forward towards a more authentic portrayal of the military as a whole.
–Sebastiano Cocco