Uncle Sam Speaks Spanish

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To help the military's cause, the Bush administration has required schools with a high concentration of Latinos to provide access for ROTC programs. School administrators have also been forced to divulge detailed information about their students. Massive databases, which include birth dates, Social Security numbers, and class grades, are used to pinpoint particularly susceptible candidates. Since 15 percent of Latinos between the ages of 16 and 19 quit school before graduating from high school (the highest dropout rate in the nation), the military also makes sure to promote the fact that it accepts students who have acquired a GED.

The military first began using aggressive marketing techniques to increase Latino enrollment during the Clinton administration. Under the leadership of Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, a Latino, the Hispanic Access Initiative laid the groundwork for specific targeting of Latinos by the Pentagon as a whole. A 2003 study by the Pew Hispanic Center shows that while Latinos are underrepresented in the military compared to their employment in the civilian workforce, they are already overrepresented in the ranks of the most life-threatening combat units.

One collateral effect of the Pentagon's latest recruitment push is the rebirth of a Latino counterrecruitment movement. Across the country, Latino students, parents, and activists have intensified their efforts, staging protests, marches, vigils, and other acts of civil disobedience. Parents and students in Los Angeles have successfully removed ROTC from Carson High School and several other campuses in the L.A. Unified School District (which is 75 percent Latino), and counterrecruitment organizations such as the American Friends Service Committee, the National Network Opposing Militarization of Youth, and the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities either have a special focus on or are led by Latinos.

For his part, del Solar is speaking at universities and at conferences and other events. His organization, Guerrero Azteca, has visited more than 150 high schools and recently started giving $500 scholarships to students who reject enlistment. 'We just gave two students -- a young woman and a young man -- what I hope will be the first of many scholarships,' he says. 'We have to help students get out of the culture of war and into the culture of education. We have to if we want to stop living in a dangerous society like this one.'

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