LATINO PERSPECTIVE-A story published earlier this month by the Spanish International News Agency EFE found out that a growing number of female Latino veterans are looking for help from the Los Angeles unit of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which offers support programs to help female Latino veterans reintegrate into civilian life.
"I look at the VA as the absent parents. Many people have parents as their support and for me the VA is like those parents," Mickiela Montoya told EFE on Wednesday, Veterans Day.
At age 16, Montoya took the U.S. Armed Forces entrance exam and one year later she was a member of the National Guard. "I enrolled to get stability," she recalled.
The Latina, who grew up with her grandparents in East Los Angeles, decided to remain in the army for eight years. Montoya served for 545 days in Iraq and in 2010 she returned to civilian life, but the change in routine was not easy.
The first big problem she encountered upon returning to Los Angeles was not having a home of her own. The thing that motivated her to request the benefits to which she was entitled was her daughter. "Once I had my daughter, I said to myself: 'I have to seek those services for the good of my daughter,'" she said.
According to the VA, there are almost 22 million war veterans in the United States, of whom 10 percent are women. California has the second largest number of female veterans, after Texas, with 164,516 female veterans living in our state.
According to Renee Andreassen, Women Veterans Program Manager for the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, the number of female veterans requesting help is growing.
A California VA report says that at least three percent of these former soldiers have been deserted by their spouses or relatives and 60 percent at some time in their lives have reported instability in their home life. The rate of health problems, both physical and mental, linked with unemployment and the lack of a home, is increasing among female vets. In addition, 73 percent of them suffered sexual abuse while serving.
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"The biggest step that a veteran can take is accepting that they need help," said Montoya. With the support of the VA, she found a home for herself and her daughter, managed to start her studies and now has a job. She is devoted to promoting the services that the VA provides to veterans, but she doesn't want others to delay in seeking help.
Montoya uses her Latino and immigrant roots to connect with other female vets to help show them the road to get help. "I learned that when you get in via their families, especially with Latinos, we can reach the veteran," she said.
In this year’s State of the Union address, President Obama said, “Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it. As they come home, we must serve them as well as they’ve served us. That includes giving them the care and the benefits they have earned – which is why we’ve increased annual VA spending every year I’ve been President. And it means enlisting our veterans in the work of rebuilding our nation.”
Let’s make sure that Los Angeles is at the forefront of this effort.
(Fred Mariscal came to Los Angeles from Mexico City in 1992 to study at the University of Southern California and has been in LA ever since. He is a community leader who serves as Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition and sits on the board of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council representing Larchmont Village. He was a candidate for Los Angeles City Council in District 4. Fred writes Latino Perspective for CityWatch and can be reached at: [email protected]) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 95
Pub: Nov 24, 2015
