“Macho Nation: Chicano Soldiering, Sexuality and Manhood during the Vietnam War.”

• In Event: Migracion, Familias y masculinidades

Abstract

During the Vietnam War, gender functioned as the terrain upon which many Chicanos struggled to adjust to life in the military and make sense of the Vietnam War. Utilizing interviews with Chicano servicemen and the theoretical insights of critical men’s studies, this essay interrogates the conventional notions of masculinity often associated with military service and machismo and reveals a range of masculine identities and behaviors, both gay and straight, which existed during the Vietnam War. Through military service, many Chicanos pushed boundaries and crafted their own definitions of manhood, despite the existence of hegemonic ideals within the larger Chicano/a community and the U.S. military. As a social space imbued with its own masculine ethos, the military provides an ideal location to study the behaviors of Chicano youth, not only because males were the predominant gender, but also because the military’s emphasis on conventional, often aggressive, displays of male sex role behaviors paralleled, and often reinforced, idealized notions of the warrior associated with machismo. Moreover, through a regional comparison of southwestern states and the Midwestern city of Saginaw, Michigan, I use my analysis of Chicano masculine behavior to expand the focus of Chicano/a Studies beyond the American Southwest. I will demonstrate that Chicano soldiering and the blurry, often contradictory nature of claims to national belonging and masculine identity were not specific to the Chicano community residing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Author

• Steven Rosales, University of Arkansas