Gina M. Pérez

HOW A SCHOLARSHIP GIRL BECOMES A SOLDIER: THE MILITARIZATION OF LATINA/O YOUTH IN CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Like many working-class communities, Chicago Puerto Ricans have a complicated relationship with the United States military. This article explores ethnographically how Latina/o youth in Chicago public schools come to decisions regarding their participation in Junior Reserve Officer Training Programs. While limited economic opportunities certainly inform these decisions, Latina/o youth and their parents are also influenced by gendered understandings of autonomy, kinwork, honor, and respectability in turning to military programs while in high school. This article explores the experiences of Latina/o youth in an increasingly militarized educational context. Many thanks to Micaela di Leonardo and Jeff Maskovsky both for organizing the American Anthropological Association panel that provided the original forum for this article and for their constructive feedback on this article. I also want to thank the anonymous reviewers at Identities for their invaluable comments and suggestions. I am indebted to colleagues who provided critical insight during my presentations of this at the Puerto Rican Studies Association Meetings, the University of South Florida, Northwestern University, and Dartmouth College. Finally, students in my course “Militarization in American Daily Life” at Oberlin College shared profound enthusiasm, engagement, and commitment to investigating the subtle (and not-so-subtle) processes of militarization that shape us all. Gracias.