Fermin “Espi” Espinoza: Captain at Sea
Retired Navy Captain celebrates his rich, cultural history and a career that has allowed him to travel the world.
“In one generation in the United States, if immersed in love and strong values at home and a strong work ethic, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish,” says Fermin “Espi” Espinoza, retired Navy captain and one of a handful of Americans of Mexican descent to command a U.S. Naval Warship. It’s Hispanic Heritage Month, but Espi steers the conversation away from the month-long U.S. recognition of the history, culture and achievements of Hispanic Americans. “It’s always bothered me that we set ourselves apart for a fixed period of time. America is made up of so many rich cultures. Why focus on just a few at any one time, in the end it is the character of the individual that should be celebrated regardless of where they came from?”
It’s characteristic humility for the soft spoken Espi, who goes on to emphasize that he and his family celebrated their rich, cultural heritage on a daily basis. “Even within the same culture, the family experience can differ widely, for instance I grew up a Methodist, which is a typical - our home church was across the border in Juarez Chihuahua Mexico – so I always equate culture with family. Putting a label or lumping all Latinos or Latinas in a box, has always been a bit humorous – so I always default to the individual. In the Navy I was exposed to so many people from all walks of life; I learned so much about the richness of that amalgamation and the strength it creates.”
Espi’s parents met in their late teens in their birth city Juarez and immigrated to the U.S just a few years later, settling in the sister city of El Paso, Texas. “With Fort Bliss on the North side of town, the city grew East to West along the border, so the relationship with Juarez has always very strong. The rugged Northern Mexico culture pairs very well with the West Texas Cowboy culture.” Soon after Espi’s parents immigrated, his father joined the Army and while in the Army, he was airborne (Paratrooper). “That’s him in his uniform,” he says, referencing a grainy black and white photo. “Growing up, just like all veterans he had a great photo album with pictures of his time in Germany and a dusty box of all his army patches and other Army keepsakes. I used to stare at photos of him in his jump gear and remember the great stories he would tell me about his time in the Army and his travels in Europe…early in my young life he planted the seeds” His voice trails off for a moment. “Those pictures and his stories ingrained in me a sense of service to country and adventure.I knew then what I would to do at some point my life… I never imagined my service to the country would span 35 years. Planting seeds, that theme seems to come up often in my career.”
Despite being a first generation American and growing up in El Paso, the young Espi never really considered himself or quite understood the word minority. As he pointed to his bare forearm, he explained, “For the most part just about everyone in El Paso was brown” he says. “I never felt that I was a minority, because in El Paso I was not. In fact, it wasn’t until on my way to boot camp, that our plane from El Paso stopped in Dallas to debark passengers and embark new passengers before heading to Chicago. Remaining in the plane as the passengers from El Pas debarked and new ones heading to Chicago embarked…I couldn’t believe how many white people were entering the plane…I turned to the other recruit from El Paso who was also heading to Boot Camp and in disbelief I said, Dude where’d they get all these white people? Looking back, I still chuckle at that memory.” Disbelief or better yet breaking paradigms is another theme that comes up often in his life.
Setting Sail
During his senior year of high school, Espi’s mother died, a traumatic event he notes “I had my mother for 17 short years, but in that short time together, she imparted a lifetime’s worth of wisdom and discipline. Most Latinos, no matter how old they are, will always remember their mother’s maxims – those sayings that express a general truth or rule of conduct. My father, instilled confidence and that competitive nature in me, but my mother… My mother above all taught me how to treat people with respect and dignity.” Armed with the values of his culture as interpreted by his family and his surroundings, those seeds of service and adventure would blossom and continue to bear fruit, at sea – far away from the West Texas town of El Paso. Serving both as an enlisted man and later an officer in the Navy, he served in submarines, destroyers, aircraft carries, frigates, command ships and amphibious ships – he loved being on ships at sea.
Throughout his career, Espi would also be educated at some of the best schools in the country to include the University of Texas at Austin and later at the Naval Postgraduate School where he would receive his Master of Science in Space Systems Operations. When asked why Space Systems Operations, with the humor of a salty sailor he said “I was never very good at math growing up, and I vowed to one day kick Math’s ass. Having done that however, I would not recommend asking me to solve an orbital mechanics equation…your trajectory might just have put you on a collision course with the sun.”
Preparing for Success
Espi went on to command a ship of more than 200 sailors, with whom he proudly and organically shared his Mexican heritage. “I used to tell my crew that you don’t just plant corn one day and harvest it the next. It takes special attention and nurturing to harvest that corn.” The advice took on greater meaning during one particularly challenging inspection period. “I had been ingraining into the crew the philosophy of preparation and the addicting nature of success. During our workups we had been very successful during all of our inspections that would certify our crew for deployment. Leading into the final inspection, I pulled the crew together and congratulated them on how far and how successful we had been, but also reminded them that there was one more challenge ahead before we reaped the harvest.
Off the cuff, I explained to them that once we were done the reward would be as satisfying as eating an elote (Mexican Corn) reading the crowd I could see that some of the crew were baffled by this new word elote, so step by step I described what an elote was and how it was prepared, I must have been doing a good job, because I could see the faces on my sailors visualizing how good that sounded. Caught up in the description, I looked over to my Supply Officer and said Suppo, when we pass this inspection, there better be some elote on the serving line…and it better be authentic. SUPPO, who was an immigrant from Colombia, turned a few shades of gray as he had no idea what an elote was or how it was prepared, but a wonderful SUPPO, he figured it out and when we knocked the inspection out of the park…my Sailors ate elote - Mexican Corn – they equate elote, with success and will always understand that you have to diligently prepare to reap the harvest.
Even now that I am retired many of my sailors still reach out to me and share their success. One of my sailors from that crew would send me a retirement gift. It was a coffee cup that had our Ship’s Crest and my Rank on it, but most importantly it also had a cartoon of a Corn with a mustache (like the one I used to sport) that looked like a bandido. After eight years, my sailors still understand, cherish and most likely chuckle when they see or think of Mexican Corn. The best part of this story is that I got the corn seed planting story from one of my mentors and at the time my Commodore. He is African American and married to a wife of Mexican descent. I added the Mexican Corn to the analogy off the cuff – but that story and that memory will be with me until I die.” Espi would later deploy and have an amazing and exciting deployment chasing and catching drug smugglers on the high seas. Although he commanded the oldest ships in his squadron, his ship and crew received the Battle Efficiency award. An award bestowed upon the best ship in the squadron.
As for paradigm shifts, Espi seems to relish in defying stereotypes. He shared that at the time he served in command, there were not that many Latinos in Command, let alone as Captains, Espi’s last rank in the Navy. “There were times when I was in uniform that because of the rarity of a Latino as a Captain of a ship, the ingrained reflex from some was to say, hey Chief (senior enlisted rank)…now don’t get me wrong being called a Chief is something that is truly flattering. Many of my mentors both when I was enlisted and later as an officer and even now after I have retired have been and are Chiefs, Senior Chiefs and Master Chiefs. This oversight would be made by fellow Latinos as well.
There was one morning when we were pulling into Panama and we embarked the local Panamanian harbor pilot. As the harbor pilot walked into the bridge, I could see him looking around, now mind you, I was in the Captain’s chair and we made brief eye contact, but he kept scanning the room and locked onto my Executive Officer, who like I was wearing scrambled eggs on his ball cap. Relieved that he had found what he thought was the ship’s Captain he began walking towards him…as he reached the XO, in very clear Spanish from my perch, I told him, hey, you looking for John Wayne, he stopped, looked my way a bit confused, I then said on this ship the Captain is Juan Wayne and he has a tan. I smiled and in the split seconds that followed, several emotions were clearly telegraphed through his facial expressions. Confusion, followed by disbelief, and finally pride that “Juan Wayne” was in command of a warship.”
We don’t need a Heritage Month for that,” he says. “I celebrate my heritage and culture with the people around me every day. I love my country and love the opportunity I have had to live the American Dream. In this country in one generation all things are possible, no matter where you came from!”