Just as it happened with Vietnam, the U.S. military action in Iraq is pulling Latinos in two directions, or maybe even in three.
The numbers tell us part of the story. The most recent poll from the Pew Hispanic Center found that at least a quarter (24 percent) of Latinos support the participation of U.S. troops in Iraq. This number is lower than the 31 percent that was reported in 2006 and the 39 percent reported in 2004.
The U.S. Department of Defense has statistics showing that 10.9 percent of the armed forces are Latino, much lower than the percentage that served in the three decades of voluntary service that this country has had. There are some, like Jess Quintero, who served two tours of duty, one in the U.S. Army and one in the Air Force, until the end of the Korean War and the beginning of Vietnam.
Quintero, president of the Hispanic War Veterans of America, speaks with pride about the contributions of Latinos to defending the ideals of democracy around the world, from the Revolutionary War until today.
He recites the names of relatives, from past generations to his grandchildren today, who decided to serve without a moment’s doubt.
Then we have Pablo Paredes, recently a third-class infantry soldier and arms control technician in the U.S. Navy. After he declared himself against the invasion of Iraq, he refused to board the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard bound for the Persian Gulf in December 2004, as part of Operation Iraqi Liberation. He was given administrative leave after serving three years of hard labor without jail time, and was demoted to a lower rank. Now he works as a peace educator for the American Friends Service Committee.
Then there is the third and perhaps largest group, which is reflected in the community at large. This group does not try to organize friends or family to ‘safeguard democracy,” nor does it actively protest the United States’ commitment to the war.
Few Latinos were seen in the protests against the war this month – the majority was white. Latinos have also not formed their own groups to protest the war as they did during the Vietnam War.
One of the most memorable protests was the Chicano Moratorium march in 1970, in East Los Angeles, in which a deputy sheriff killed Ruben Salazar, the news director at KMEX-TV, with a tear gas projectile capable of penetrating body armor. On the east coast, the Young Lords, mostly Puerto Rican, organized similar demonstrations.
Most of the anti-war Latinos today had activist experience during the Vietnam era. A smaller number are parents of soldiers who have died in the most recent Middle East conflicts, explains Jorge Mariscal, professor of Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, San Diego. “The younger Latinos who participate do so because they were witness to the impact of the war on their friends and subject to the militarism inside their schools for the recruitment of young people,” he said, adding that the reason why more do not participate is because they have not received the information.
