A young soldier with Cuban roots became the star of one of the latest videos by Ecuadorian influencer José Erazo (“El Pepe”, @elpepejl), who interviewed her within the facilities of the U.S. Army and shared the meeting on his Instagram account.
Carmenate is 22 years old, born in Spain to Cuban parents, and has been serving in the US Army for almost two years. In the short video, she introduced herself candidly and explained how she came to wear the uniform: "I enlisted in the army because my sister is also in the army, and she encouraged me to enlist."
When Erazo asked what advice she would give to other women considering enlisting, Carmenate was straightforward: "Don't get into drama, follow the rules, do what you're told, and it's all mental, just keep pushing."
His story reflects a common phenomenon in immigrant communities: recruitment by family referral, where a relative already in active service paves the way for other household members.
Carmenate's profile is quite uncommon even within the growing Hispanic presence in the military. The daughter of Cuban parents, born in Spain and enlisted in the U.S., she embodies a transnational journey that crosses three countries before reaching the ranks of the Army.
Erazo, based in Miami, is one of the most followed Hispanic military content creators on social media, with over 2.6 million followers on TikTok and more than 400,000 on Instagram. A large part of his audience consists of young Latinos who are considering enlisting and are looking for first-hand information about life in the Army.
The video with Carmenate is not the first in which Erazo highlights the Cuban presence in the U.S. armed forces. Other soldiers of Cuban descent have shared their experiences on digital platforms: Andy Soto, who emigrated to the U.S. at seven years old, serves as a logistics specialist in the Army Reserve; Lea Nieves went viral with a video about her Cuban identity within the Army; and José "Pepe" Ávalo was promoted to sergeant in 2025 and is currently stationed in Italy.
The Hispanic presence in the United States Army continues to rise. According to data from the Army Recruiting Command, in fiscal year 2025, Hispanics made up 26.7% of new recruits in the regular Army, totaling approximately 16,567 soldiers out of 62,050 enlisted that year.
"Cuba is present in the Army," Erazo wrote when publishing the video, which garnered over 9,100 reactions and hundreds of comments in just a few hours, a testament to the interest this type of story evokes among the Latino community.
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