UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Recovering the Forgotten Puerto Rican and Chicano Soldiers of the U.S. Wars in East Asia : : Cultural Representations at the Limits of the Scholarly Archive Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1hj5b1xp Author Oko-Odoi, Katrina Haugsness Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Recovering the Forgotten Puerto Rican and Chicano Soldiers of the U.S. Wars in East Asia. Cultural Representations at the Limits of the Scholarly Archive A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Katrina Haugsness Oko-Odoi Committee in charge: Professor Rosaura Sánchez, Chair Professor Luis Alvarez Professor John D. Blanco Professor Milos Kokotovic Professor Max Parra 2014 Copyright Katrina Haugsness Oko-Odoi, 2014 All rights reserved. SIGNATURE PAGE The Dissertation of Katrina Haugsness Oko-Odoi is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my partner in life and love Clifford Oko-Odoi for tirelessly supporting, encouraging, and inspiring me. Above all else, you made sure that I never lost sight of what is truly important and that I did not forget to live along the way. To my parents Allen White and Julie Haugsness-White for paving the way for me to make it this far, and to my sister Jocelyn Threatt for believing in me throughout this long journey. I wouldn’t be here without all of you. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to those historically marginalized men and women whose stories of resilience go untold and whose adversities remain undocumented. There is much work that remains to be done. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE ......................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... vivii VITA ................................................................................................................................. xv ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ........................................................................ xvi INTRODUCTION “I am an American fighting man”: Interrogating Diversity in Twentieth & Twenty-First Century U.S. War Literature .................................................... 1 Ethnic Minorities At Home and Abroad during The Cold War Era ............................... 6 Theoretical Framework: The “Political Unconscious” and the “Outsider Within” ...... 15 Interrogating the Limits of the Archive ........................................................................ 20 Unique Histories, Unique Narratives ............................................................................ 25 Chicanos in the U.S.: “We Didn’t Cross the Border, the Border Crossed Us” ........ 25 The Roots of Imperialism, or the “World’s Oldest Colony” .................................... 30 Chapter Breakdown ...................................................................................................... 41 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER ONE Interrogating Absence: the Puerto Rican Soldier in United States Historiography and the American Consciousness ............................................................ 48 The Limits of Extant Historiography and the Scholarly Archive ................................. 54 The Makings of War: Puerto Ricans in the Korean War .............................................. 65 The Literary Generation of 1950: the Work of José Luis González in Context ........... 85 José Luis González’s Literature: The Themes of Race and War .............................. 90 Presenting Absence: The Critical Function of Lacunae in José Luis González’s “El arbusto en llamas” ................................................................................................... 102 CHAPTER TWO An Insider’s Perspective: The Reality of the Puerto Rican Experience in the Korean War ........................................................................................................... 122 A Veteran’s Experience, Fictionalized: The Work of Emilio Díaz Valcárcel ............ 126 A Close Reading of “Proceso en diciembre” .............................................................. 153 Mirroring the Effects of Imperialism through the Antagonistic Relations between U.S. and Puerto Rican Soldiers ............................................................................... 158 Feeling Trapped: Cross-Cultural Gender Relations in a Marriage Based on False Pretenses ................................................................................................................. 167 Life Devalued: Puerto Rican Soldiers’ Tenuous Solidarity when Confronting their Treatment as Expendable Bodies ............................................................................ 175 A Metaphorical Castration: Loss of Mustache Equals Loss of Manhood .............. 182 The Role of Patriarchy in the Structure of Recognition ......................................... 188 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 196 A Closer Look at the Screenplay “Una sola puerta hacia la muerte” ......................... 198 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 208 v CHAPTER THREE “Cannon fodder is just good old Army chow”: Problematizing the Chicano and Latino Experience in the Korean War ....................................................... 210 “Equal” Sacrifice and Heroism in Finnigan’s War: Connor Timmis’s Take on the Korean War ................................................................................................................. 212 Rolando Hinojosa’s Re-creation of the Korean War .................................................. 216 Troubling Transnational Racism: From Belkin County to Korea, and Back ......... 220 Comprehending the Intersection of Race and Class through the U.S. Military Machine................................................................................................................... 230 The Specter of Death as a Permanent Residue of War ........................................... 241 Preserving Chicana/o History through Orality: José Montoya as Artist, Activist, and Korean War Veteran ................................................................................................... 245 Problematizing Anglo-Chicano Racial Tensions and Internalized Racism in “The Bully” ...................................................................................................................... 256 Critical Differences in the Puerto Rican and Chicano Experience of the Korean War ..................................................................................................................................... 261 CHAPTER FOUR (Re)presenting the Vietnam War era through the Chicana Perspective: The Fragmented Chicana/o Family and Crises in Female Identity................................. 266 How Can We Move On? Puerto Rico’s Military Presence in the Aftermath of the Korean War ................................................................................................................. 268 Centering the Female Perspective: The Chicana/o Experience of the Vietnam War Era ..................................................................................................................................... 274 Contextualizing Chicana/o Late Twentieth and early Twenty-first Century War Literature ................................................................................................................. 276 ¿Darles voz?: Chicana Narrative as Reaffirming National Belonging in Stella Pope Duarte’s Let Their Spirits Dance ................................................................................ 282 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the (Non)return in Patricia Santana’s Motorcycle Ride on the Sea of Tranquility .................................................................................... 299 A Chicana’s Guernica: Reliving a Life-altering Loss through Autobiographical-based Fiction in Gloria Velásquez’s Toy Soldiers and Dolls ................................................ 327 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 337 EPILOGUE “Strange but this place where we are at is unreal almost”: Exploring Latina/o and Chicana/o Military Participation in the post-9/11 Era ............................................. 340 Whose Homeland? Targeted Recruitment and Non-Citizen Soldiers ........................ 343 Expanding the Archive ............................................................................................... 352 Conclusion .................................................................................................................