Hispanics in the United States Marine Corps, such as Private France Silva who during the Boxer Rebellion became the first Marine of the thirteen Marines of Latin American descent to be awarded the Medal of Honor, and Private First Class Guy Gabaldon who is credited with capturing over 1,000 enemy soldiers and civilians during World War II, have distinguished themselves in combat. Hispanics have participated as members of the United States Marine Corps in the Boxer Rebellion, World War I, the American intervention in Latin America also known as the Banana Wars, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and most recently in the military campaigns of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hispanics are also reaching the top ranks of the Marine Corps, serving their country in sensitive leadership positions on domestic and foreign shores, with generals such as Major General Angela Salinas and Lieutenant General Pedro del Valle. Many Hispanic Marines went on to distinguished careers outside of the military in different fields such as sports and space exploration.
Hispanics (sometimes also referred to as "Latinos"Cambridge dictionary , Retrieved December 20, 2007) in the Marine Corps account for the largest minority group of that military institution. Hispanics comprise 18% of enlisted Marines today, up from 15% when the Iraq War began. The United States Marine Corps has implemented an aggressive recruitment program directed towards Hispanics, which is the nation's largest ethnic or minority race (2005 Census). According to the U.S. Census Bureau the estimated 2010 Hispanic population of the United States is over 50 million, or 16% of the U.S. population. The 2010 U.S. Census estimate of over 50 million Hispanics in the U.S. does not include the 3.9 million residents of Puerto Rico.
Terminology Hispanic is an ethnic term employed to categorize any citizen or resident of the United States, of any racial background, of any country, and of any religion, who has at least one ancestor from the people of Spain or is of non-Hispanic origin, but has an ancestor from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central or South America, or some other Hispanic origin. The three largest Hispanic groups in the United States are the Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans. People of Spain and their direct descendants in the United States are not considered of "Hispanic" ethnicity, but rather as Europeans or European Americans of European (Spanish) origin in accordance to the established definition of the term.
Background Originally organized as the Continental Marines on November 10, 1775, as naval infantry, the Marine Corps has evolved in its mission with changing military doctrine and American foreign policy. The Marine Corps has participated in every American armed conflict including the Revolutionary War.
There are various factors that make it difficult to determine when exactly Hispanics began to serve in the Corps; one is that statistics on Hispanics were not kept by the military until the 1970s when the United States Census Bureau coined the phrase. Before then only unreliable estimates were made. For example, during World War II Hispanic Americans were estimated to comprise 2.3% to 4.7% of the Armed Forces. However, the exact number is unknown, as at the time Hispanics were integrated into the general white population census count. Separate statistics were kept for African Americans and Asian Americans. Another factor is that the estimates which have been made only take into account individuals whose surname is of Hispanic origin, when there are many Hispanics with non-Hispanic surnames who have served.
Unlike the United States Army, which had an all Puerto Rican unit (the 65th Infantry Regiment) and other units in the Southwest region of the United States mostly made up of Hispanics, the Marines have never had any Hispanic-oriented units.
Since 2003, identifying as Hispanic is optional for members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Consequently, individuals of Hispanic descent who choose to identify solely by race rather than ethnicity are not counted as Hispanic in Department of Defense statistics.
Boxer Rebellion
While specific statistics were not kept on the number of Hispanics in the Marine Corps, history documents instances of their heroic actions. During the Boxer Rebellion, Private France Silva (1876–1951) became the first Marine of Hispanic descent to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government.
Private Silva joined the Marines on September 12, 1899, in San Francisco. In 1900, he was a member of the 1st Regiment (Marines) under the command of Major Littleton Waller, aboard the . On May 20, 1900, the , a United States Navy protected cruiser and the first modern cruiser in the U.S. fleet, sailed for China to help land reinforcements to relieve the legations under siege by the Boxers at Peking in what is known as the Boxer Rebellion. The Newark arrived at Tientsin on May, 22. On May, 31, Captain John T. Myers, USMC, arrived in Peking in overall command of two ship detachments of U.S. Marines. This newly formed Legation Guard consisted of twenty-five Marines from the along with twenty-three Marines and five sailors from the USS Newark. Private Silva was one of the Newark Marines who were a part of the Legation Guard.
On June 19, 1900, the 1st Regiment (Marines) attempted to take the city of Tientsin and failed. Then, on June 23, the Regiment, under the command of Major Waller, entered Tientsin in their second attempt after a Japanese blew open a gate to allow the Chinese to escape. Private Silva, who was seriously wounded and two sailors, Navy Seaman Axel Westermark and Chief Machinist Emil Peterson, were awarded the Medal of Honor for their defense of the civilian compound (legation) at Peking—they defended the walled city from June 28 until the fall of the city which occurred on August 17.Silva Frances
World War I
During World War I, the Marine Corps' 2nd Division fought alongside the U.S. Army's 36th Infantry Division in the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge in Champagne, France. The result of this battle was the expulsion of the Germany Army from the Champagne Region.The Story of the American Expeditionary Forces, January 12, 2008
Private Joe Nichols Viera of the 78th Company, 6th Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, was awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest Military decoration which can be awarded by the U.S. Navy to members of the U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps for heroism or distinguished service. On October 3, 1918, Viera, captured three enemy machine gun nests and with the aid of another Marine captured forty enemy soldiers in the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge. He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the United States Army second military decoration, for heroism.
Marine aviation was fairly new, it came into existence on May 22, 1912, and the first major expansion of the Marine Corps' air component, of which Puerto Rico played a major rule, came with America's entrance into World War I. On January 6, 1914, First Lieutenant Bernard L. Smith established the Marine Section of the Navy Flying School in the island municipal Culebra. As the number of Marine Aviators grew so did the avid desire to separate from Naval Aviation.Corum (2003), p.23. By doing so, the Marine Aviation was designated as separate from the United States Naval Aviation. The creation of a "Marine Corps Aviation Company in Puerto Rico consisted of 10 officers and 40 enlisted men.Sherrod (1952), pp. 4–5.
In 1915, Lieutenant Pedro Augusto del Valle, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Lieutenant del Valle helped the Marine Corps in the capture of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1916, for which he was awarded his first Legion of Merit. He commanded the Marine detachment on board the in the North Atlantic during World War I. In 1919, del Valle participated in the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet.
Second Nicaraguan Campaign 1926–1933 Civil war broke out in Nicaragua during the first months of 1926, and upon the request of the Nicaraguan government, 3,000 U.S. Marines were sent to establish a neutral zone for the protection of American citizens. The American intervention was also known as the Banana Wars. Both Captain Pedro del Valle and Private Rafel Toro from Puerto Rico, participated in the Second Nicaraguan Campaign.Second Nicaraguan Campaign. Retrieved January 19, 2008
In 1926, Captain del Valle served with the Gendarmerie of Haiti for three years and during that time, he also became active in the war against Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua. In 1927, Lieutenant Jaime Sabater, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, graduated from United States Naval Academy.
Private Rafel Toro, from Humacao, Puerto Rico, was part of the U.S. Marine Corps occupation force in Nicaragua, serving with the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua. On July 25, 1927, Private Toro was on advance guard duty into Nueva Segovia. As he rode into town, he was attacked; returning fire, he was able to hold back the enemy until reinforcements arrived. He was mortally wounded in this action for which he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
In 1931, Brigadier General Randolph C. Berkeley appointed Pedro del Valle to the "Landing Operations Text Board" in Quantico, the first organizational step taken by the Marines to develop a working doctrine for amphibious assault. In 1932, he wrote an essay titled "Ship-to-Shore in Amphibious Operations" which was published in the Marine Corps Gazette. In his essay, he stressed the importance of a coordinated amphibious assault and of an execution of an opposed landing, a principal which the Marine Corps were to put into practice in World War II.
In 1933, Lieutenant James Rockwell, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, became the third Marine of Hispanic (Puerto Rican) descent to graduate from the USNA.
World War II
PFC Richard I. Trujillo was serving aboard the Battleship when on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Nevada was among the ships which were in the harbor that day. As her gunners opened fire and her engineers got up steam, she was struck by torpedoes and bombs from the Japanese attackers. Fifty men were killed and 109 wounded. Among those killed was Trujillo, who became the first Hispanic Marine casualty of World War II.
After the United States officially entered the war, Hispanic Americans were among the many American citizens who joined the ranks of the United States Marine Corps as volunteers or through the draft. Hispanic Americans in the Marines fought in every major battle in the Pacific Theater of Operations. The battles of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa saw fierce fighting between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Japanese Army.U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle: Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War, 1939–1945; by Gordon L. Rottman Publisher: Greenwood Press (2001); Among them PFC Guy Gabaldon who single-handed captured over 1,000 prisoners. It was during this conflict that four Hispanics would also participate as military commanders in the Marine Corps. The two highest-ranking Hispanics in the Marines were Lieutenant General Pedro Augusto del Valle, the first Hispanic to reach the grade of general in the Marines, and Colonel Jaime Sabater Sr.