From the time my family and I crossed the United States-Mexican border, crawling underneath the barbed-wire fence that separated the two countries, our father warned us that we had to hide from la migra, the border patrol guards dressed in green uniforms. "If they catch you, you'll be deported back to Mexico," he said repeatedly. We managed to evade the green-uniformed men for ten years, but they ultimately caught and deported us when I was in the eighth grade. And even though we came back legally, I continued to feel apprehensive every time I saw a green uniform. And now I had to wear one once a week during my entire freshman and sophomore years. I had no choice. Like many land-grant colleges, Santa Clara required all undergraduates to take the two-year basic military science program (Reserve Officers Training Corps). The one-and-a-half-unit courses consisted of two hours of lecture and one hour of drills. Every Tuesday morning we dressed in our army uniform and marched in Buck Shaw Stadium on the east side of the campus.
