Ohio Hispanic Veterans Memorial plan announced, Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith honored Saturday

LORAIN — Dozens of veterans and their family, friends and supporters gathered Saturday at Sacred Heart Chapel on Pearl Avenue in Lorain for two reasons. The first: To hear a public announcement of plans for a proposed $1 million project to expand the 41-year-old Hispanic Veterans Memorial in Lorain to a larger plot of land in Oakwood Park. The second: To honor Lorain native and newly promoted Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, who in January was named the director of joint staff for the New York National Guard and who in February was promoted to her current rank following a 35-year career in the U.S. Army and Army National Guard in two different states. The memorial Plans for the memorial have been in quiet progress for eight months, according to the Ohio Hispanic Veterans Memorial Project Committee: Elba Armstrong and her husband, former Lorain Police Chief Cel Rivera, Lorain City Councilman Rey Carrion, Joe Horvath, Fred Lozano and Rick Soto. "It's critical that our kids and grandkids understand" the sacrifice and service of Hispanic and Latino veterans, said Rivera, a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He said the committee wants to expand the small 10-foot by 10-foot memorial in Oakwood Park at East 31st Street and Clinton Avenue by creating a larger space at East 31st Street and Grove Avenue to the east, putting it just north of the Ohio Army National Guard center on Grove Avenue. The park already has been improved with more sidewalks, trees, shrubs and playing fields and courts. To put a statewide memorial honoring the sacrifice of Ohio's Hispanic veterans would show the "purpose and promise" of South Lorain and its re-energized spirit. The original memorial was placed by AMVETS Post No. 58 and was to be maintained by the city of Lorain, though Mexican Mutual Society and the Latin American Motorcycle Association have taken over much of the maintenance, Rivera said. The new memorial will have eight flagpoles for the American, Ohio and city of Lorain flags as well as flags for all the branches of the military. It will be lit 24 hours a day and display the names of all Hispanic veterans from Ohio who have died while serving their country. "Not to glorify war but to talk about peace," Rivera said. The memorial will be paid for through donations and grants, as well as the sale of special bricks, pavers and benches. Only two others like it exist in the United States: One in Sacramento, California, and one in Buffalo, New York. Casimiro Rodriguez of the Western New York Hispanic American Veterans Memorial has agreed to work with the Lorain-based committee, as has Ken Noon of the Ohio Veterans Memorial Park in Clinton, Rivera said. Other possibilities are to create an extended memorial lane into Oakwood Park for members of other ethnic groups to create memorials to their fallen. Funding will show up, Lozano said, asking for the community's emotional and physical support to start. The plan will be a lot of hard work, but worth it to remember those who gave their lives, Rivera said. "You can't roll up your sleeves if you bring in your hands," he said, quoting an old saying. The general Smith was honored with multiple proclamations for her 35-year career first in the U.S. Army, then in the North Carolina National Guard and since 1989, in the New York National Guard. She joked that she remembered the room where the event was held because she grew up attending "every single Sacred Heart Chapel dance" at her late mother's insistence, under the lights of a disco ball in the ceiling. After joining the Army upon graduation from Admiral King High School in 1985, Smith trained as a motor transport operator — the Army's name for a "truck driver" — and served as administrative assistant to the commander of her unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. There she met her future husband, then-Sgt. Peter Smith, who was leaving to move to New York to become a recruiter. She enrolled in a number of special leadership schools, got her bachelor's degree from St. Mary's College and two master's degrees from Long Island University and the U.S. Army War College while also being a mother of seven children. In addition to her command of numerous units of the New York Army National Guard, Smith served for 13 months in Iraq as Deputy Team Chief at Iraqi Police National Headquarters during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Her many service awards include the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal and the 2017 Latina Style Military Service Award. Smith said her parents, the late Andres and Isabel Rivera, always were encouraging her career in the Army. It was during a physical exam that was part of the process of being nominated for promotion to general that Smith said doctors discovered a medical issue that resulted in her having several surgeries. She said she thought God directed her boss to nominate her for the promotion so that doctors would discovered the medical problem. "Through hard work, perseverance and by the grace of God, I'm here. I am here," Smith told the crowd to applause. "I'm not here without my community, without my family and without the people I love." Smith also was the recipient of several proclamations and commendations: One from Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown; one each from U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat who presented the proclamation in person, as well as State Rep. Joe Miller, D-Amherst; one from Gov. Mike DeWine; one by the Lorain County Veterans Service Commission; and also one from Lorain County commissioners Matt Lundy, Michelle Hung and David Moore, signed by all three and presented by Lundy. The general also received challenge coins, pins and an afghan blanket featuring images of Lorain, presented by Armstrong. "You will always have a home here," Soto told Smith upon presenting her with yet another proclamation on behalf of Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.