Hispanics in the United States Coast Guard can trace their tradition of service to the early 19th century, when they initially performed duties at light house stations as keepers and assistant keepers in its predecessor services (the United States Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Life-Saving Service). 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.Hispanic Population of the United States Current Population Survey Definition and Background , United States Census Bureau, Population Division, Ethnic & Hispanic Statistics Branch, Retrieved May 21, 2008
According to the U.S. Census Bureau the estimated Hispanic population of the United States is over 50 million, or 16% of the U.S. population, and Hispanics are the nation's largest ethnic or racial minority. 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, thereby making the people of Hispanic origin the nation's largest ethnic or race minority as of July 1, 2005.
Amongst the Hispanic pioneers in the Coast Guard were the Andreu family of Florida; Joseph Ximenez, the first Hispanic-American to command a Coast Guard vessel; and Detlef Frederick Argentine de Otte, the first Hispanic to graduate from Revenue Cutter Service School of Instruction. The Coast Guard can be transferred to the Department of the Navy by the president or Congress during time of war. During World War I, Hispanics served in the United States Revenue Cutter Service and U.S. Life-Saving Service; and during World War II, Hispanics served aboard ships guarding the shores of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean against enemy submarines. However some men, such as Jose R. Zaragoza, served on missions on lonely atolls. Hispanics have served in every major conflict, and continue to do so. Coast guard service is not limited to armed conflicts with other nations; the Coast Guard also plays a vital role in the apprehension of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.
Hispanic men and women have reached the top ranks of the Coast Guard, serving their country in sensitive leadership positions on domestic and foreign shores. In 1991, LTJG Katherine Tiongson became the first Hispanic-American woman to command an afloat unit. In 2006, Ronald J. Rábago was the first Hispanic-American promoted to rear admiral (lower half). In 2009, Rear Admiral Joseph R. Castillo became the first Hispanic-American district commander in the U.S. Coast Guard. Hispanics currently account for 11% of the enlisted personnel, and 9% of the United States Coast Guard Academy's student body.
History 1800–1900
The United States Coast Guard was formed in 1915 when its predecessors – the United States Life-Saving Service and the United States Revenue Cutter Service, which was established in 1790 by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton as an armed maritime law enforcement service – were merged. According to William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian of the United States Coast Guard,Dr. William H. Thiesen has a Master’s degree from East Carolina University’s Program in Maritime History and a Ph.D. from University of Delaware's Hagley Program in the History of Technology and Industrialization. His research interests include Coast Guard history, naval history, ship design and construction, and the history of technology. the following events involving Hispanics occurred in the early years of the Coast Guard its predecessor services.
The first Hispanic to serve in the United States Revenue Cutter Service, predecessor to the Coast Guard, was Juan Andreu who from 1824 to 1845 served as the Keeper of the St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida, thus making him also the first Hispanic to oversee a U.S. federal installation of any kind. Maria Andreu (a.k.a. Maria Mestre de los Dolores), a family member, followed in his footsteps and served as Keeper of the same lighthouse from 1859 to 1862, becoming the first Hispanic-American woman to serve in the Coast Guard (USRCS) and the first Hispanic-American woman to command a U.S. federal shore installation.
The first Hispanic-American to command a Coast Guard vessel (USRCS) was Joseph Ximenez, who took command of the Carysfort Reef Lightship in Florida in 1843. He was not, however, the first Hispanic officer. That distinction belongs to Domingo Castrano, who is listed by the United States Revenue Cutter Service Register as having served aboard USRC Grant in 1872, as an engineering officer. The first known Hispanics to have served in the U.S. Life-Saving Service were Surfmen Telesford Pena and Ramon Delgado who, in 1897, served at the Brazos Life-Saving Station in Texas.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Detlef Frederick Argentine de Otte entered the Revenue Cutter Service Academy in 1889 and graduated in 1891. During his career he served aboard the USRC Levi Woodbury as second lieutenant. During the Spanish–American War he served with the North Atlantic Squadron, which took part in the blockade of Havana. Cuba. He later assumed command of several cutters; served as captain of the port for Brest, France, during World War I; and became the first commander of the service's Norfolk District, now known as Coast Guard District "5." He rose to the rank of commodore and received a promotion to rear admiral in retirement. Title: Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers and Cadets of the United States Coast Guard in the Order of Precedence; Author: United States. Coast Guard; Page 6; Publisher: U.S. Coast Guard., 1921; Original from the University of Michigan; Digitized: Mar 31, 2006
1900–1941
In 1914, the schooner Isaiah K. Stetsen sank off the coast of Massachusetts during a storm. Mess Attendant First Class Arthur J. Flores and Seaman John E. Gomez, assigned to USRC Acushnet, volunteered to save survivors of the schooner and were awarded the Silver Lifesaving Medal for their heroism. That same year, USRC Algonquin, which was stationed in the Caribbean, set sail with fifteen Hispanic-Americans (a fourth of the cutter's complement) to San Juan, Puerto Rico to assist the Puerto Ricans battling fires that threatened to destroy parts of that city. In 1915, the City of San Juan, Puerto Rico, paid tribute to the crew of the cutter Algonquin and presented them with an Official Resolution of Thanks. The Coast Guard was already formed by September 1918, with the merger of United States Revenue Cutter Service and United States Life-Saving Service, when Seaman Richard E. Cordova became the first Hispanic coast guardsman to perish in a military conflict when his cutter, the USCGC Tampa, was torpedoed and sunk with all its crew by a German U-boat during World War I. The Coast Guard can be transferred to the Department of the Navy by the president or Congress during time of war. Boatswains Mate First Class Pablo Valent and Surfman Indalecio Lopez, members of the Texas Brazos Life-Saving Station crew were awarded the Coast Guard Silver Lifesaving Medal and The Grand Cross Medal from the American Cross of Honor Society for their assistance in the rescue of the crew of the schooner Cape Horn on September 16, 1919. In 1935, Chief Boatswains Mate Pablo Valent was given command of the Port Isabel (Texas) Boat Station, becoming the first Hispanic-American to do so.
On September 28, 1925, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joseph B. Aviles, Sr. (1897–1990), born in a farm near the town of Naranjito, Puerto Rico when the island was still a Spanish colony, became the first Hispanic chief petty officer in the Coast Guard. During World War II he received a war-time promotion to chief warrant officer, becoming the first Hispanic to reach that level as well. Aviles joined the United States Navy in 1915 and served seven years and eight months, eventually reaching the rank of chief gunner's mate. During the years that he served in the Navy, the United States Congress passed the Jones–Shafroth Act (1917) which conferred United States citizenship on all citizens of Puerto Rico. On September 28, 1925, he entered the United States Coast Guard with the rate of chief gunners mate and served for two years before re-enlisting on September 11, 1928.
World War II
During World War II, the Coast Guard was transferred to the Department of the Navy and as such many men saw action in said conflict. During the invasion of Saipan, which began on June 15, 1944, Valentin R. Fernandez, a landing craft coxswain, was awarded a Silver Lifesaving Medal for maneuvering a Marine landing party ashore under constant Japanese attack. The first known Hispanic-American coast guardsman to be awarded with a Bronze Star Medal was Louis Rua, whose craft, a U.S. Army large tug en route to the Philippines, went to the rescue of another ship which had been torpedoed by enemy action and helped save 277 survivors from the abandoned ship.
Upon the outbreak of World War II, Joseph B. Aviles, Sr. received a war-time promotion to chief warrant officer (November 27, 1944), thus becoming the first Hispanic American to reach that level as well. He retired from the Coast Guard on July 27, 1946, and worked as a security guard at a hospital in Baltimore until 1962 when at the age of 65 he retired. Aviles died at his residence in Columbia, Maryland, on February 22, 1990, and was buried with full military honors in Plot D O 2220A of the Baltimore National Cemetery at Catonsville, Maryland.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Clarence Samuels, born on Bohio, Panama, enlisted in the Coast Guard on July 16, 1920, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States on July 21, 1923. On May 12, 1939, he was appointed a chief photographer's mate becoming not only the first Hispanic of African descent photographer in the Guard, but also only the second photographer in the entire history of the service. On July 29, 1944, he assumed command of Lightship No. 115, operating in the Panama Sea Frontier. Thus, he became the first admitted Hispanic of African descent to command a cutter, as well as the first one to be an officer-in-charge of a Coast Guard vessel during wartime. Samuels entered the Coast Guard as a seaman 2nd Class and reached the rank of lieutenant (as a part of the massive demobilization of the Coast Guard following the end of hostilities, his lieutenancy was revoked and he was dis-rated to chief photographer's mate). Samuels retired from the Coast Guard on September 1, 1947.