Latinos in the Military

The ranks of volunteer and drafted military personnel in the 20th century and beyond have been enriched by the presence of more than a million men and women of Latin American origins. While this population has included Puerto Rican, Cuban, and many other Caribbean, Central American, and South American immigrants and their offspring, the majority of these men and women have been Mexican Americans (“Chicanos”).

More than 500,000 Latinos served in the military during World War II. Chicanos were overrepresented at the heroic defense of the Philippine bastion of Corregidor and thereafter on the Bataan Death March. Throughout that war, Chicanos served with distinction; 17 won Congressional Medals of Honor, a number in excess of any other ethnically-identified group (Allsup, 16). Even so, Chicanos in Los Angeles experienced vicious, raciallyinspired beatings and attacks upon their communities by Anglo civilians, servicemen, and Los Angeles Police Department officers in June of 1943. This 10-day clash, which left more than 100 Mexican Americans seriously injured and many more imprisoned, became known as the “Zoot Suit Riot.”

Latinos were also overrepresented among applicants for service in the combat-oriented Marine Corps in 2001, though they remained slightly underrepresented in the armed services compared to their age echelon (16.2 percent) in the population. Along with African Americans, they remained overrepresented among military accessions throughout the first five years of the 21st century. Latinos suffered one in every nine combat fatalities (11.1 percent) in the Iraq War between March 2003 and April 2004, while constituting 10 percent of all Army–Marine Corps combat soldiers, but they were actually underrepresented within these combat ranks. African American combatants, by comparison, suffered 14 percent of all U.S. combat fatalities, while constituting 15.2 percent of all Army–Marine Corps combatants (Gifford, 208; Kelly, C-7).

There is significant evidence that Latinos who have served in the military in the past century have benefited from their service experiences in ways that veterans from other minority groups, or even Anglo vets, have not. A study found that by 1971, Latinos in southwestern states (largely Chicanos) who had served in World War II and the Korean War were earning significantly larger salaries 10 or more years after their military experiences had ended than did non-service Chicanos who had attained similar levels of education and performed similar jobs. The same study found that black veterans were earning only slightly more than black non-vets, and that Anglo vets were earning slightly less than Anglo non-vets (Browning et al., 81). This discrepancy appears to have been due in part to the fact that the highly structured routine of military life resembled the structured work culture of Latinos’ later civilian employment. This higher rate of progress for Chicano veterans may also stem from their having more greatly increased their facility with English (useful again in civilian employment) than had those Chicanos who had not served.

In addition, Latinos nationwide who had been drafted from World War II through 1973, when the Selective Service System was established, were found in 1990 to be more active politically (voting and participating in campaigns) after leaving the service than were their counterparts who had not been drafted (Leal 1999, 163–165). And, whether drafted or not, Latinos who had served during those years acquired more English language proficiency and made more Anglo friends. Similarly, Anglos who had served were more likely that non-vet Anglos to make Latino or black friends (Leal 2003, 216–221).

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