A Project of YAOTL

Limit the Military Presence in our Schools April 24, 2008

Yeah, I’m from Mexico, too. That’s where I’m from, and look at me now. You can do this, too. — Oskar Castro

The increased recruitment of young Latinos and Latinas to the armed forces is nothing new. The campaign has been around since President Clinton was in office, when the disproportionately low number of Latinos in the military came to light. But what’s new is the rising numbers of Latino counter-recruitment activists across the country.

“Anti-military activists have been having this conversation for the past 10 years and we’ve never seen this type of activity that we’re seeing now,” said Oskar Castro, counter-recruitment activist with the American Friends Service Committee of Philadelphia, Pa. “I think it’s because [Latino/as are] paying attention more than they ever had. They need to. It’s a war, and it’s an endless war. It’s not just the war in Iraq. It’s the so-called war on terror.”

Latino counter-recruitment activists have been emerging on both coasts, and in pockets across the country. In big cities like San Diego and Chicago, and in small cities like Hartford, Conn., where Latinos Contra La Guerra (Latinos Against the War) led by Milly Guzman-Young are mobilizing large numbers of youth.

“Latino activists who haven’t necessarily always been involved in this conversation, or as involved as in anti-colonialism, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and social justice work, have found [counter-recruitment activism] as compelling and important to their work,” says Castro.

Oskar Castro recently became involved in the counter-recruitment movement because of his uncle, who passed away last year. He was a Vietnam veteran enlisted in the Marine Corps.

“When I started there was an impending war, but now we’re in that war. And I see a lot of young men and women who are coming back and who are going to be just as challenged, if not more so, than my uncle,” said Castro.