COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Youth of Color
At Bronx Latino Festival, the Army Sponsors the Music
FERNANDA SANTOS, The New York Times
July 30, 2007
A
young recruiter with bulging biceps tapped his fingers against his
stomach, following the thumping melody emanating from the stage nearby.
A line of people stretched along the steel barricades surrounding his
makeshift office, a black-and-gold tent erected by the Orchard Beach
promenade. Beside him, a poster depicting a group of soldiers in
military fatigues offered, in Spanish, an invitation of sorts:
It said: “Están entrenando para ser más que
soldados.” (“They’re training to be more than
soldiers.”) “Están entrenando para la vida.”
(“They’re training for life.”)
Each Sunday until Labor Day weekend, a different organization pays
$20,000 to $50,000 to cover most of the day’s expenses for the
Tropical Music Festival, an annual series of Latin concerts at the
beach on Long Island Sound, a mile-long stretch of sand known as the
Riviera of the Bronx.
On July 22, the festival’s opening day, American Airlines was the
principal sponsor. Yesterday, to the dismay of some local officials, it
was the United States Army.
“I know we all have our opinions,” said the
festival’s M.C., Casper Martinez, a stand-up comedian from the
Bronx who broadcasts on a New York Spanish-language radio station, La
Mega 97.9 FM. “But we do want to thank the U.S. Army for
being here with us.”
Most of those clustered around the stage, about 200 people who swayed
animatedly to the beat of salsa and reggaetón, seemed oblivious
to the Army’s presence, or simply did not care about it,
regardless of how they felt about the war.
Not too far away, though, near steps connecting the parking lot to the
beach, two local elected officials, surrounded by about a dozen
supporters, stood in protest.
“We should not be allowing our public recreational space to be
used for recruiting our youngsters to get killed in Iraq,” said
Assemblyman Jose Rivera of the Bronx.
“Our children are not for sale,” added City Councilwoman
Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents East Harlem and the Mott Haven
section of the Bronx.
Ms. Mark-Viverito said the Army, which was doing most of the fighting
in Iraq, had increasingly focused its recruiting efforts on the
city’s low-income and minority neighborhoods. Last year,
the Army opened a recruitment station on 103rd Street in East Harlem,
which is predominantly Hispanic, much like the crowd yesterday at
Orchard Beach.
Army representatives at the concert declined to be interviewed.
John Velez, 18, who lives in Washington Heights, another of the
city’s heavily Hispanic areas, said he was considering joining
the Army once he graduates from high school next May, even as he
conceded being “a little bit scared” about possibly going
to war.
“I’m looking for some direction, and I think maybe the Army
could give it to me,” said Mr. Velez, who is entering his senior
year at the Manhattan Occupational Training Center. “And they
could make me strong.”
Mr. Velez was standing in line outside the Army tent, waiting to pick
up one of the T-shirts and dog tags given away by the recruiters.
Lillian Robles, who had already collected her giveaways, said one of
the men under the tent asked her to write down her name, address,
date of birth and phone number on a form before he handed her the items.
“Sounds like a lot of information to give out for free
stuff,” said Ms. Robles, who lives in the West Farms section of
the Bronx.
“I got a shirt, and I guess I’m going to get a call,
too,” she said, though at 45, she does not seem to be a potential
Army recruit.
The recruiters, wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with the
black-and-gold Army star over the words “Go Army,” did not
approach anyone outside the fenced-in area surrounding the tent. At
least one of them attracted the attention of passers-by by doing
occasional pull-ups on a bar behind the tent.
The Army has 46 recruitment centers across the five boroughs, but
despite its aggressive push, recruitment numbers have fallen by 19
percent in the past three fiscal years, to 1,044 in 2006 from 1,295 in
2004, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit
research organization that works with mostly liberal causes.
Nationwide, however, the Army said it recruited about 80,600 people in
the 2006 fiscal year, or some 7,000 more than in the previous fiscal
year. For 2005, it missed its recruiting goal. From 2001 to 2005,
Latino enlistments in the Army rose 26 percent.
Brooklyn led the city last year in new Army recruits, with 391,
followed by Queens (261), the Bronx (230), Manhattan (109) and Staten
Island (53), the National Priorities Project said.
This is the third consecutive year in which the Army has sponsored one
of the days at the festival, which has been put together for 11 years
by Ralph Paniagua, a longtime promoter of Latino events in the city. In
the event’s news release, the “Army Day” was
characterized as “an opportunity to acquaint the public with our
armed forces in an ambience of mutual camaraderie.”
“We have a lot of Latinos who have joined the military and
become very successful,” said Mr. Paniagua, whose 37-year-old
son, Joseph, enlisted in the Army when he turned 21.
“This is not about boosting the Army’s ranks,” he
added. “This is about the Army showing appreciation for our
culture, and us showing appreciation for their service to our
country.”
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