The Images That Make Us: Christina Fuentes Montenegro And The First Female Marines

In our column, The Images That Make Us, writer, founder and CEO of MTArt Agency, Marine Tanguy, responds to a visual creative and cultural moment, unwrapping its importance in how it shapes us as individuals. Next up: Christina Fuentes Montenegro and the first female marines.

The image that we will discuss today scared the US government so much that they decided to retract it from their official army website. This image depicts a woman of colour, Christina Fuentes Montenegro, working for the army. She was one of the first woman to join the marine division of the army, a prestigious division founded in the early 20th century. At the time, she was the symbol of progress, freedom and women joining army ranks. In this photo (above) she is wearing camouflage paint, a deep green and an army gilet. The focus of the image is on her face and she looks with confidence towards a near distance.

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Pfc. Julia Carroll, 18, native of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Pfc. Cristina Fuentes Montenegro, 25, native of Coral Springs, Fla., two of the first three female Marine graduates from the School of Infantry-East’s Infantry Training Battalion course, are interviewed after the graduation of Delta Company, Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry-East at Camp Geiger, N.C., Nov. 21. The graduation of 227 students marked the first class of Marines to include females. The class was part of the Marine Corps’ research effort toward integrating women into ground-combat military occupational specialties. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Jackeline M. Perez Rivera/Released)

Since Trump came back to power, he has asked to remove all images depicting minorities on the site under an ideological campaign named Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing. This visual purge has seen 26,000 images flagged for removal, and could result in up to 100,000 being removed. It reminds us of the darkest days of our history.

Amongst the many images flagged for removal is one of Eugene Bullard, the very first black pilot of the US Air Force. To identify images, an AI tool called CamoGPT is in place but, still at an early stage, has created some absurd situations. For instance, the picture of the plane Enola Gay has been flagged, and yet in this instance the word ‘gay’ that caused the flag wasn’t to do with a sexual preference but was instead the name of the plane’s pilot’s mother, Enola Gay Tibbets, who the plane was named after.

We know that visuals shape who and what we value in society; the act of seeing can challenge and improve existing negative biases. Removing these images – that is making minorities feel unseen – would contribute to reinforcing negative connotations against them, and an overall sense that they do not belong in certain spaces in our society.

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FIRST THREE FEMALE MARINE…
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Justin A. Rodriguez/Released 131121-M-JR212-305.JPG

Therefore, Associated Press and online groups like the Data Rescue Project (using the tool Wayback Machine) stood against this visual purge and decided to save most of these images before the army could remove them. These saved visuals will be sent to Europe, and saved outside of the USA.

This visual purge is a direct attempt to rewrite history by using images – understanding their power – and is part of a larger vision, where the US government is also trying to control US museums and the artefacts that they display. Ironically when you try to destroy images, it means that you take them seriously. And that is perhaps where I agree with the US government, albeit ironically.