Field of Yellow Ribbons Waves as Street Sends 5th Son to Gulf

And now there are five. Ramon Alberto Sandoval Jr., 23, a lance corporal in the Marine Corps, has become the fifth son that La Verne Avenue has sent to the Persian Gulf. His Orange County-based ordinance unit shipped out to Saudi Arabia in the last month.

In this corner of East Los Angeles--a barrio of working-class folks wedged between Whittier and Olympic boulevards--the discovery of yet another boy from La Verne in the war zone is a source of great pride. There is no thought that the street has too many of its own in the Gulf.

“Another one?” wondered resident Jose Gutierrez, shaking his head. “Man, no one can’t say this street is putting out for this country. No sir, not nobody!”

Sandoval, Timothy Reyes, Manuel Castro, Adrian Yracheta and William Martinez are part of a long tradition of Mexican-American participation in the U.S. armed forces.

Chicanos received 17 of the more than 560 Medals of Honor awarded during World War II and Korea, more than any other ethnic group. In Vietnam, they won about a dozen more, again more than any other ethnic group. They accounted for 20% of all casualties from the U.S. Southwest, where they make up 10% of the region’s population.

In addition to the five servicemen from La Verne, two others could be sent to the Gulf at any time. Joe Villarreal Jr., 21, and John Chavez, 19, both in the Marines are, for now, with units a safe distance from the war.

So to Gutierrez and others on La Verne, it does not seem unusual to have so many in the Gulf from such a small place of about 60 homes and apartments. Indeed, U.S. flags and yellow ribbons in this neighborhood of small wood-frame homes seem as commonplace as barking dogs and kids playing in the street.

An outgoing athlete who excelled at football and baseball at Nogales High School in La Puente, Sandoval initially was overlooked in the neighborhood nose-counting of Gulf participants because his father, a 13-year resident of La Verne, usually is away during the week, working at a seafood exporting business in the Baja California coastal town of Ensenada.

Ramon Sandoval Sr., 47, who makes the three-hour drive back to East L.A. to spend weekends on La Verne, simply was not around often enough to tell his neighbors of his son’s whereabouts.

Although he was born near La Verne, many on the street hardly know the son because he grew up with his mother in La Puente. They did not know that he was so popular with classmates that he was elected to the homecoming court during his senior year at Nogales High. They also did not know that he was near the end of his four-year stint in the Marines when his unit was ordered to the Gulf.

It was Super Bowl Sunday when the father, who masks his emotions behind a stern demeanor, joined the mothers of the four other servicemen and their friends at Rachel Reyes’ home for a gathering. He told them that he, too, had a son in the Gulf.

“Don’t worry,” said Reyes, the unifying force and unofficial spokeswoman for las madres . “You’re now one of us.”

The scene was later interrupted when son Steve, 15, broke in to say that Ramon Jr. was on the telephone from Saudi Arabia. The excited father rushed to his upstairs apartment down the street to talk to his son.

“He said that his unit dropped a ton of metal on the Iraqis,” said Sandoval Sr., who feels more comfortable conversing in Spanish. “He sounded very positive. He also said he was losing some weight. I guess he misses the Mexican food over here.”

In the privacy of his austere apartment, built over a garage, the senior Sandoval lowered his guard for a few moments the other night and said quietly that he wished his son was not over there.

“But this is war,” the father said. “It’s a question now for God and for the Virgin of Guadalupe.”