“I’m Not Gonna Die in This Damn Place”: Manliness, Identity, and Survival of the Mexican American Vietnam Prisoners of War

Coronado (co-author of Mexican American Baseball in South Texas) offers a concise look at a comparatively little-known group of Vietnam War veterans: the 10 Mexican-American servicemen who were captured and held prisoner by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. All 10 subjects grew up working class, but they held different political views about the war. They ranged from gung-ho officers like Navy Pilot Everett Alvarez, who “expressed blind loyalty to the United States’ war effort,” to iconoclastic enlisted personnel such as former Marine Sgt. Alfonso Riate, who spoke out against the war after he was captured. Featuring in-depth interviews with the former POWs, the book also looks at the larger picture of social discrimination and racial inequality the men (and other Mexican-Americans) faced in the military and in civilian U.S. society. Despite its academe-tinged subtitle, this is a readable, illuminating account of a group of men who faced the same horrors that all Vietnam War POWs did, but also had to deal with racial discrimination growing up in 1950s in the Southwest, and similar “social and racial barriers” in the military. The chapter on manliness elucidates the impact of the tough-guy ethic on Mexican-Americans’ decisions to serve in the military and how Chicano troops acted in uniform, during captivity, and after coming home from the war. This informative account is sure to appeal to those interested in Vietnam War POWs and Chicanos’ experiences in that war. (Mar.)