LA RAZA: The "grunts" of the
U.S. Armed Forces
by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - September 9, 2002 - (ACN) As Bush Jr. prepares to unleash the U.S. military machine against the nation of Iraq, perhaps we should spend a few moments to reminisce on the wretched and unequal treatment that historically has been meted out against the Mexican-American soldier, marine, airman and sailor. The discrimination against Mexican-Americans in the U.S. Armed Forces is in many ways worst than that experienced in civilian life. It is principally worst because unequal military treatment often results in disproportionate higher casualties and battle injuries among Mexican-American enlisted men. Mexican-Americans, Chicanos and other Latinos are truly the "grunts" of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Despicable discrimination against Mexican-Americans and Chicanos in the U.S. Armed Forces takes many forms. The discrimination is meted out daily by racist and bigoted non-commissioned as well as commissioned officers who see the Mexican-American soldier in the same way a "cop" sees Chicanos in the barrio or the "white guard" sees Chicanos in the U.S. prison system. During initial military basic training which results in the enlisted man's military assignments, Mexican-Americans usually end up in units that are destined for the front-lines such as the infantry. Safer assignments and the selection of enlistment men for officer training is reserved for Anglos and other whites. In addition, during the basic military training period and subsequently, it is not unusual for Mexican-Americans and Chicanos to be disproportionately assigned to demeaning duties like cleaning the latrines, digging trenches and kitchen patrol (KP).
After World War II, the ethnic discrimination in the U.S Armed Forces was so insidious that it resulted in the formation of the Mexican-American veteran organization called "The American GI Forum" by Dr. Hector P. Garcia of Corpus Christ, Texas in 1948. Dr. Garcia had just returned back to South Texas after the war with his newly acquired wife, Wanda Fusillo, whom he met in Naples, Italy in 1944. The conditions in which Mexican-Americans lived in "El Valle de Tejas" did not escape Mrs. Garcia. She was quoted in a historical document by Carl Allsup as stating: "In Italy and many European countries that I have visited, the word 'America' was always associated with liberty, equality and freedom of opportunity ..... I was dumbfounded at the attitudes displayed towards the Mexican people." This was a time when the infamous Texas Rangers would routinely beat, frame and imprison Mexican-Americans for daring to drink water from a fountain meant for "whites only."
Fresh from the war, Dr. Garcia opened his first small medical practice in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1946 next to the U.S. Veterans Administration Office. He wanted to serve the thousands of maimed, injured and sick Mexican-American veterans of World War II who were being neglected by the established veteran medical system. It was a time that according to Dr. Garcia "We had discrimination everywhere. We had no opportunities. We had to pay to vote. We had segregated schools. We were not allowed to go to public places. We were not allowed to buy land either, except in the barrios." Things have not changed much today yet Bush Jr. wants to shed more Mexican-American blood in a land and against a people that has done no harm to our community.
While treating hundreds of Mexican-American veterans through his modest practice, he became aware of the intolerable discrimination against the very soldiers that fought bravely to defend democracy and the American way of life. He learned that the veterans were coming home to the very same or worse discrimination they had left. There were at the time approximately 500,000 Mexican-American veterans that had served with distinction in World War II. This is when Dr. Hector P. Garcia made a call to organize the American G.I. Forum on March 26, 1948.
One shameful discriminatory incident that propelled the A.G.I.F. to national prominence in 1948 was the "Felix Longoria Affair." After the war, the body of Private Felix Longoria of Three Rivers, Texas was being brought home for burial. The local military cemetery was refusing to bury his body there because it was reserved for "whites only". After an organized effort by Dr. Hector P. Garcia and the newly formed American G.I. Forum, Private Felix Longoria was eventually buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The situation in the U.S. Armed Forces did not change at all by the time of the Vietnam War. In many ways things were a lot worse during this racist war against the Vietnamese people. Mexican-Americans and Chicanos were dying in such large disproportionate numbers in the jungles of Vietnam that it generated great massive anti-war demonstrations in the Mexican-American community. These demonstrations in turn generated extreme repressive measures against the Chicano anti-war activists culminating in the killing by police forces of a number of civilians that included the murder of a popular Los Angeles Times Mexican-American journalist by the name of Ruben Salazar. During this time, Mexican-American young men where either being sent to prison or drafted to die in Vietnam. Like today, the "push out rate" from high schools of Mexican-American students was extremely deplorable while the number students in colleges and universities, places where white men sought refuge from the military draft, was so shameful that the situation propelled the formation of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA).
In the battle front in the jungles of Vietnam, things got really bad. Chicano and Black soldiers were being ordered by white officers to be the "point men" during reconnaissance missions. Minority soldiers rebelled against these suicide missions and started retaliating against the whites officers who usually stayed behind the lines. One practice that became frequent during the last months of the Vietnam War was called "fragging". Many Black soldiers would lob fragmentation grenades in the direction of the white officers during the heat of battle. Many white lieutenants, captains, mayors and a few colonels lost their lives or were maimed for life by "fragging".
Today, Bush Jr, wants to start another war against the Iraqi people. I can not think of any reason why the blood of our young men should be shed in a country that has done nothing to us. The Bush family's and their cronies' oil profits do not percolate down to anyone in our community. We owe nothing to Israel! Instead, we should wage war against the poverty that seems to perpetually afflict us here in our homeland. We should instead form an army to batter down the doors to higher education. Perhaps, instead we should declare war against all the social injustice, economic inequality and lack of real political representation here at home!
