STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — When Yesenia Mata, 36, first told people she wanted to join the U.S. Military, they didn’t put much faith in her ability.
In fact, they said the slim, 5-foot-2-inch woman wouldn’t stand a chance in the U.S. Army.
“Whenever I wanted to join, people would say, ‘Well, you’re very small, and you’re not going to make it. Do you even meet the height requirements?’… They would say, ‘The rucksack weighs more than you,’” she recalled.
But Mata, a North Shore resident — who is also executive director of La Colmena, and Commissioner on New York City’s Racial Equity Commission — proved all the naysayers wrong when she enlisted as a military police specialist in 2009…