Gallego, Grijalva lead efforts to have Army base renamed after a Latino military hero
Reps. Ruben Gallego and Raúl Grijalva are urging Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and a Pentagon commission to rename at least one military base to honor Latino military heroes.
The request was made in a letter signed by Gallego, Grijalva and 19 other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which includes several members of the House Armed Services Committee.
Last year's National Defense Authorization Act included the goal of renaming military bases with names associated with the Confederate Army from the U.S. Civil War. The issue took on a partisan dimension after former President Donald Trump resisted renaming the bases, saying the bases represented a legacy of military excellence and sidestepping the records of their namesakes.
“U.S. Army bases should not be named after traitors who rose in rebellion against the United States and attempted to destroy that same U.S. Army in the field,” said Gallego, D-Ariz., who sits on the Armed Services Committee. "It is long past due to recognize the defenders of America that represent America, including Latinos.”
Grijalva, D-Ariz., also is pressing for the name change.
"It is past time that we recognize the immeasurable contributions of Latinos in our military both historically and present," Grijalva said in a written statement to The Arizona Republic. "That means ensuring that our military bases are named after and reflective of those individuals and the communities where they have roots."
The letter focuses on renaming Fort Hood, which is named for John Bell Hood, a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, according to the Texas Tribune.
That detail is not included on the fort's "history" webpage.
Instead, the letter urges the base to be named after Roy Benavidez, a native Texan who was a master sergeant and eventually a Green Beret. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 for saving the lives of comrades in the Vietnam War.
The letter urges that naming the base after a Latino would be a "symbolic step forward" after the 2020 murder of Vanessa Guillén at Fort Hood.
Because of the Department of Defense's renaming commission's focus on higher-ranking members of the military, there is worry Latino and Hispanic members will be overlooked.
"Given the continued underrepresentation of Latinos in leadership ranks in the military and the obstacles that Latinos continue to face in reaching these higher echelons of the military, the current base naming convention is unnecessarily exclusive," the letter says.
Other options were offered for consideration. Two other suggestions were Macario Garcia, a World War II veteran and the first Mexican immigrant to receive the Medal of Honor, and Carmen Contreras-Bozak, a World War II veteran and the first Latina to join to U.S. Women’s Army Corps.