RICHMOND, Va. –
National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed yearly from September 15 to October 15. It is a time to celebrate the achievements, histories, traditions, and cultural diversity of Hispanic Americans whose heritage is rooted in 20 Latin American countries and territories.
In observance of 2023’s Hispanic Heritage Month, Defense Logistics Agency Aviation will feature employees of Hispanic heritage to appear in spotlights.
Name: Erik Garcia
Job title: Lead Customer Account Specialist
Organization: Army Customer Facing Division, Customer Operations Directorate, DLA Aviation’s forward presence at Corpus Christi Army Depot, Corpus Christi, Texas
How long have you worked for DLA? 1 year
Please describe your job in a sentence or two. As a lead customer account specialist, I am an order fulfillment expert supporting new material needed for rotary wing overhaul maintenance of the Army’s UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook, and AH-64 Apache helicopters airframes, and other engine component assets.
How do you support the warfighter? I support the warfighter by directly supporting the depot’s goal to delivering the quality parts they need when they need them.
The theme for this Hispanic Heritage Month in 2023 is “Todos Somos, Somos Uno – We Are All, We Are One." In your words, briefly explain what this means to you? What the 2023 theme means to me is that Hispanics are a strong culture that will always be united. But we are also united with people from all cultures – we are one.
Tell us something unique about your heritage or country of origin. My family is from Colima, Mexico which is known for great beaches, great sea food, and our fire and snow volcanoes. Colima’s two volcanos are almost side-by-side. Volcan de fuego, meaning fire volcano, is the smaller of the two and more active. The Snowy Volcano of Colima volcano, El volcan Nevado de Colima, adopted that name because of the snowfall at its cone or peak that occurs due to its altitude and inactivity.
What is one thing you'd like others to know about your heritage? All my family worked the agricultural fields in the Salinas Valley, California. For my siblings and I, it served as motivator to stay in school and continue our education.
Why is it important to you that we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month? More than anything, Hispanic Heritage Month is honoring Hispanics that have accomplished great things in life and that helped inspire many others along the way. It’s a time to recognizing our gente, or our people, and being proud of who we are!