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CounterPunch
March 22,
2003
The Militarization of Everyday
Life
Latinos on the
Frontlines, Again
By JORGE MARISCAL
Since the early years of the American war in Southeast
Asia, Latino communities have argued that their youth have been
disproportionately placed in harm's way. When Dr. Ralph Guzmán
published his study in which he argued that between 1961 and
1967 19.4% of combat casualties in Viet Nam were Mexican American
(only 10% of the population of the Southwest at the time), Chicano
and Chicana activists used the study to mobilize against the
draft and ultimately against the war.
While we cannot know with certainty the
number of Chicanos and Latinos killed in the Viet Nam conflict
because of Pentagon record-keeping practices during that period,
we can point to the high percentage of Spanish surnames on the
Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, D.C. and to ample anecdotal
evidence in every Chicano and Latino barrio in the nation. The
example of activist-scholar Lea Ybarra, author of an oral history
of Chicano Viet Nam veterans titled Too Many Heroes, is not unique.
During the Viet Nam war period, eighteen of Dr. Ybarra's cousins
served in the U.S. military.
Today, with the ever-increasing likelihood
of a protracted American war in Iraq, Latino communities are
once again sensing that their young men and women will be among
those forced to pay the ultimate price. The names of the first
killed and missing in action include Jose Gutierrez, Jose Garibay,
Jorge Gonzales, Ruben Estrella-Soto, Johnny Villareal Mata, and
Francisco Cervantes, Jr. Edgar Hernandez, age 21, from Mission,
Texas, has been listed as a POW.
The Pentagon campaign targeting Latino
youth began in the mid-1990s when former Secretary of the Army
Louis Caldera decided that the growing Latino population ought
to be tracked towards military service. Counted at the time as
a robust 11% of the general population, Latinos were the fastest
growing sector and would have the highest number of military-age
youth of any other minority group for well into the next century.
According to an article in the Army Times, "Hispanics"
constituted 22% of the military recruiting "market,"
almost double their presence in the society. Recruiters depicted
universities and vocational schools as rivals competing for the
same "Hispanic" pool.
Using the carrot of money for college
and technical training, Caldera appealed to the relatively uncritical
patriotism of Latino immigrant families and relied on the reality
of high Latino high-school drop out rates, low numbers of college
degrees (only 5% of all college graduates), and limited career
opportunities. Although the Pentagon opposed (and continues to
oppose) a draft, the basic structures of economic conscription
were in place. In a sleight of hand, Caldera concocted the myth
that the core mission of the armed forces was education. The
real mission-armed conflict-was easier to disguise during the
Clinton years.
Iraq has certainly changed all that and
Latinos and Latinas are once again on the frontlines. But what
are the exact numbers? Military recruiters continue to focus
on Latino communities because according to the Pentagon Latinos
are underrepresented. Slightly over 13% of the 18-24 year old
civilian population in 2001, Latinos made up only 9.5% of active
enlisted personnel. Although numbers are probably somewhat higher
now given the push to recruit more "Hispanics" in recent
years, Latinos are probably still "underrepresented."
But more important than the number of Latinos and Latinas in
uniform is an understanding of where in the military they can
be found.
According to 2001 Department of Defense
statistics, Latinos made up 17.7% of the "Infantry, Gun
Crews, and Seamanship" occupations in all the service branches.
Of those Latinos and Latinas in the Army, 24.7% occupy such jobs
and in the Marine Corps, 19.7%. Remember that Latinos make up
only 13% of the general population. (Although women do not serve
in the "Infantry," they can be found on gun crews and
in other forms of hazardous duty). In other words, Latinos and
Latinas are over-represented in combat positions.
But the story does not end there. Recent
events in Iraq have shown that GIs in so-called non-combat military
occupations are equally at risk. When fifteen soldiers from the
507th Maintenance Company were killed or captured by Iraqi forces
last week, we were reminded of one of the lessons of Viet Nam
and previous wars-in any full-scale conflict, "frontlines"
are never fixed and no one is ever far from harm's way. The killed
and captured in the ambush outside Nasiriyah were truck drivers,
welders, cooks, and mechanics.
In the category of "Supply"
occupations in the Army, Latinos and Latinas made up 10.3% and
in the Marine Corps 15.6% during fiscal year 2001. Here African
Americans were disproportionately represented with 16% in the
Army's "Supply" occupations and 19.9% in similar jobs
in the Marines. (In 2001 African Americans made up approximately
12.7% of the 18-44 year old civilian population and 12.2% of
overall combat occupations but 14.6% of combat-related jobs in
the Army). The promised hi-tech training, transferable to civilian
life, is simply not in the cards for these young women and men.
With the end of the Cold War, the size
of the U.S. military diminished. From 1992 to 2001, the numbers
of active duty personnel decreased by 23%. The number of Latinos
in uniform, however, grew by 30%. Huge increases in the number
of new immigrants from Latin America during the decade of the
1990s (over 4.5 million legal arrivals) mean recruiters will
be busy in Latino communities for years to come.
Among the many aftershocks of the Bush
administration's reactionary agenda will be the further militarization
of every aspect of U.S. society. The military's presence in public
school systems across the country is just one sign of the on-going
incursion of militarism into the very fabric of our culture.
Today after witnessing dozens of young Latinos and Latinas in
Junior ROTC uniforms marching in a parade to honor the memory
of Cesar Chavez, a disciple of Gandhian non-violence, I am haunted
by the question, "When will Latino communities begin to
refuse to carry their young to the red, white, and blue altar
that has been prepared for their sacrifice?"
Jorge Mariscal
is a Viet Nam veteran who teaches at the University of California,
San Diego. He is an active member of Project YANO. He can be
reached at: gmariscal@ucsd.edu
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