Chapman honors Latino veterans at Veterans Day event

On Nov. 11, Chapman honored Latino veterans by discussing the impact of Latinos in America’s military and by inviting them as well as the family members of veterans who lost their lives to give them a space to speak about themselves or their fallen loved ones. Rick Aguirre (left) and Congressman Lou Correa (right) were two of the attendees. Photo by Sophia Mac Arthur

Chapman University’s master of art’s program in War, Diplomacy and Society — along with the Office of the President as well as Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences — hosted, “A Night of Remembrance: Honoring America’s Latino Veterans,” Nov. 11 as part of Chapman’s Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Ethnic Studies series.

“I think given what we do and what we encourage our students to study, this fits perfectly,” Kyle Longley, director of the War, Diplomacy and Society master’s program, told The Panther. “It’s about the culture of Southern California and the contributions it’s made to American society in the case of war. But, it’s such an important group of people who — as the judge made the point — don’t always get the recognition they deserve. So we wanted to make sure that that did occur.”

At the event, President Daniele Struppa, Congressman Lou Correa (D-46) and Rick Aguirre, a former judge of the Superior Court of Orange County, gave special presentations.

Struppa discussed the importance of the Latino community at Chapman, the university’s goal of becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution and the positive impact that Latino students have had at Chapman.

“I think since my arrival here, especially when I became president almost seven years ago, I made a point that we really had to engage the Latino community more forcefully and more actively than we had done the years before, and I think that this is something we’ll try to put into practice,” Struppa said during the event.

Correa, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of the inclusion of Latinos in American history.

“All that we ask is that we be considered part of the great American history,” Correa said during his presentation.

Aguirre — who has many family members who served in the military — detailed the long history of Latinos’ involvement in the military, dating back to the American Revolution.

“Just before 1776 was announced — Independence Day, July 4, 1776 — we had a lot of Latinos already established here in the Southwest, especially universities, towns, agriculture (and) mines,” Aguirre said during his presentation. “All of that was flourishing during that period.”

After the presentations, veterans and family members of veterans who passed shared what branch of the military they or their family members served and what time period. They also received complimentary shirts provided by the university.

Longley explained the long process it took to contact veterans and veterans’ families.

“This was the work of Judge Aguirre, who had a list of 300 Latino veterans in the area,” Longley said. “We passed that off to Congressman Correa’s office, and they had interns create an Excel database, and then we started contacting them ourselves. So it was a collaborative effort between Wilkinson, Judge Aguirre, Congressman Correa’s office (and) War, Diplomacy and Society.”

Consuela Gonzalez and her mother were two family members of veterans who were invited to the event.

“We’re kind of representing my brother who passed away in Iraq,” Gonzalez told The Panther. “We just wanted to come in and show support to the veterans, pretty much.”

Cousins Marie Garcia and Yolanda Garcia-Aranda also have veterans who passed away in their family.

“We had five brothers that were in World War II,” Garcia told The Panther. “I figured it was something honoring the Latinos.”

Garcia-Aranda stated that she was also representing her father.

“He was a proud patriot, and he would’ve been honored that he was included in this event tonight because he was very proud,” Garcia-Aranda said.

Gonzalez, Garcia and Garcia-Aranda said they all had positive experiences at the event. For Gonzalez in particular, she enjoyed and learned a lot from the history lesson.

“It was just really refreshing to learn about the history of my culture because I was born in Mexico,” Gonzalez said. “We came here. I’m kind of proud to realize there were a lot of Mexicans fighting.”

Garcia told The Panther she was “very impressed” that the speakers were able to touch on every single subject “perfectly.”

“Being Latina, and you have this stigma, you’ll say people aren’t prejudiced, but people are prejudiced, regardless,” Garcia said.

Garcia-Aranda noted that she hopes the university continues to hold similar events like this each year.