Apparently Ken Burn's new WWII documentary fails to mention the contributions of Latinos during World War II. I know my own grandfather was proud of his service and medals. Here is a paper on Latinos and the military, comments to follow.
The U.S. Military and Latino Populations: Accommodation and Resistance
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World War II was a major turning point for U.S. Latinos, changing the worldviews of an entire generation. Many Latino soldiers returned home to find the same discrimination they had left behind; they began questioning a system that held Latinos to a lower status. Many veterans used the G.I. Bill to earn a college education. Latinas who worked in military installations and in other jobs previously denied them also questioned the status quo. Some Mexican citizens were brought in to fill jobs left vacant by departing soldiers. Few lives were left untouched--even those men who were unable to join the fighting forces would never be the same.
In the following years, these men and women made astounding civil rights advancements for their people--in school desegregation, in voting rights, in basic civil rights. Powerful organizations grew out of this era, including the G.I. Forum and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
For Puerto Ricans, World War II brought new questions: the U.S. came to appreciate Puerto Rico's military importance in the Caribbean, especially as guardian to the Panama Canal. The U.S. had maintained that it needed to keep its sovereign power over the island for reasons of national security, and World War II strengthened that position. Accordingly, the U.S. dramatically increased the number of military personnel in Puerto Rico, a military presence that endures to this day. Even as soldiers from Puerto Rico came to the mainland, most of them for the first time, to train before heading off to fight in the war overseas, World War II found Puerto Rico isolated in the Caribbean. While the war created jobs in the U.S., unemployment rose in Puerto Rico. Later, the post-war economic boom in the U.S. helped to finance the industrialization and modernization program on the island, which led to the mass mirgration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland.
Sadly, the stories of these men and women have been virtually untold, either in the mass media or in scholarly writing. The main problem has been the small numbers of U.S. Latino journalists, scholars and other writers who would document the stories of this generation. This project seeks to capture the stories of these men and women.
This project is being organized by the University of Texas at Austin Department of Journalism.
"http://utopia.utexas.edu/explore/latino/background.html"
Latinos have inevtiably contributed greatly to the defense of this nation. Latinos in the military should be acknowledged. At the same time, we need to acknowledge that Latinos not only serve the country in the military. There are many Latinos that do not hold legal status in our country that every day contribute to the prosperity of this nation. So, what happens to the failed recognition of all those forgotten Latinos?
It is unbelievable that the government still tries to enforce racist legislation and deportation.
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