Senior film and television major Gonzo Gonzalez discusses his experience as a student veteran and his perspective on how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is leading under the Trump administration.
Transcript:
0:07: Welcome back to the Chronicle Chronversations.
0:09: I’m your host, Aaron Guzman.
0:11: This week on Chronversations, I am joined by senior film and television major Gonzo Gonzalez.
0:17: Gonzo shares his experience joining the Navy as a Latino as well as the challenges he faced in culturally expressing himself.
0:24: Joining up as a Latino in the United States Navy, you really have to and that’s all the military is, is like breaking you down to build you back up but really you’re just fitting into an identity that they need you to fulfill a job.
0:38: So being a Latino in the military, I didn’t really express myself of my culture as much, as far as I remember, only other two people that I knew that spoke Spanish and like meet with me on a regular basis, because if I don’t speak it, I tend to lose the words and then I become embarrassed that way.
0:56: But I did have two people to help me out with that, and one of them was Colombian and the other one was Dominican, so it’s like this, the culture is there, it’s just very minor.
1:06: Since we’re focused on doing other things, it erodes it completely.
1:11: I mean, if you see it now how they said that we are allowed to be racially profiled, and I didn’t sign up to protect a country and then just be on the other side of that now just to be profiled by the way I look, because I am an American.
1:25: I was born here.
1:27: He also shares his thoughts on how well the student veteran body is represented on campus and shares his perspective on his representation as a veteran.
1:35: I don’t have many of the resources I did at my old school because I’m a transfer student.
1:41: We did have a very active student veterans organization there, or like an active chapter. Here, first thing I noticed was that there isn’t one.
1:50: I do have an adviser, Terry, and they do well, so. In my perspective, no, I’ve always been open to other people’s stories.
1:56: It’s one of the reasons I joined the military is because of how diverse it is, different walks of life, what is being, what’s the right way to say this?
2:05: Advertised by Pete Hegseth and everyone else, it’s extreme.
2:13: I don’t know what, I do, I just don’t know how to really define it with his mindset and how the military should be, especially with, how misogynistic he is.
2:22: I know plenty of women that served in the military, well that I look up to.
2:25: I had an XO that like was amazing, ended up being the skipper as soon as I left, so I didn’t get to really experience like full leadership under her, but like.
2:32: She was a really good person, a great person to talk to, especially if you’re going through anything during deployment, which we did do during the pandemic.
2:38: So, I mean, how do I feel with my perspective changing?
2:41: It’s always been open.
2:42: Like I’ve always wanted to hear from other people.
2:44: Gonzo also shares how he’s being affected by the federal government shutdown and the restrictions being placed on resources from Veterans Affairs.
2:52: I already served under one term with Trump before.
2:55: I mean, I served under Obama, Trump, and then Biden.
2:59: With Hegseth, I think he’s the least qualified secretary like of the Department of Defense secondary names Department of War, but it’s ridiculous.
3:08: Yeah, he’s the least qualified.
3:11: He’s just trying to put up a show like it’s just like, you know, showing off your feathers, yeah, just showing how pretty you look, but really it’s nothing.
3:21: That’s all for this week.
3:22: Make sure to stay up to date with our campus and Metronews and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on columbiachronicle.com.
3:28: I’m Aaron Guzman.
3:30: Thanks for listening.
Copy edited by Mya DeJesus
