World War II, Puerto Rican Soldiers, and the “Greatest Generation”

Editor El Boricua Newsletter
 This coming Veterans Day (Nov. 11, 2009), is an appropriate, and solemn, time to remember and pay long overdue tribute to our brave and heroic Puerto Rican soldiers who served and fought during World War II. Unfortunately, only a relatively few Americans and possibly Hispanics are aware, and even fewer, know of the specifics, of these WW II Puerto Rican veterans.  As each new day and year passes, and with the inevitable passing of these individuals, now is a good time to write a few words about them, although just plain words are far from satisfactory for their respective sacrifices that each one had to endure, many of whom had paid “the ultimate sacrifice” with their respective lives.
 In a Wikipedia article titled the “Greatest Generation”, said article indicated that “The Greatest Generation” is: “a term coined by Tom Brokaw [The American Journalist, in 1998] to describe the generation of Americans who grew up during the deprivation of the Great Depression, and then went on to fight in World War II, as well as those whose productivity within the wars home front made a decisive material contribution to the war effort. Some of those who survived the war went on to rebuild United States industries in the years following the war.” 
 In another Wikipedia article titled “Military History of the United States during World War II”, it indicated that: “Between the United States entry on 8 December 1941 and the end of the war in 1945, over 16 million Americans served in the United States military…. Between 1941 to 1945, military casualties suffered by the United States of America” was as follows: in combat, 291,557 and in “other deaths”, 113,842; with 30,314 listed as being “missing”, for a total of 405,399 deaths by the United States [including at least 37 Puerto Ricans] during WW II.
 Once again, in another Wikipedia article entitled “Puerto Ricans in World War II”, it pointed out that a total of at least 51,438 “Puerto Ricans served in the Armed Forces during World War II…. [And] in World War II, Puerto Rican members of the United States armed forces guarded U.S. military installations in the Caribbean [as well as the Panama Canal, in Panama] and took part in combat in the European and Pacific theatres.”  
 In 2006, one of the results of the U.S. Latino & Latina WW II (World War II) Oral History Project, out of Austin, Texas, was their publication of a book entitled: “A Legacy Greater Than Words: Stories Of U.S. Latinos & Latinas Of The WWII Generation,” by four separate authors, namely, Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Julianna A. Torres, Melissa DiPiero-D’Sa, and Lindsay Fitzpatrick (University of Texas, Austin, Texas). “The goal of the U.S. Latino & Latina WW II Oral History Project is to create an archive of primary source material for future research, so that the perspectives of Latinos are included in writings about their period. The main component of the archive are the 500-plus videotaped interviews.”
 Although this book points out that “up to 750,000 Mexican-American men served in World War II, earning more Medals of Honor and other decorations in proportion to their numbers than any other ethnic group”, this brief article will focus on the specific role that Puerto Ricans played during WW II, and therefore, are an important, although oftentimes overlooked, part of the WW II “Greatest Generation.” One contemporary consequence of this “Greatest Generation” is the following: “Though still incomplete, the Hispanic civil rights struggle launched by the WWII generation utterly transformed the position of Latinos in American society.”
 This book has a series of chapters, notably titled, “The European Theater,” “The Pacific Theater,” “Beyond the Main Fronts,” “Latinas in the Military,” Brothers in Arms,” “Latinos And Latinas On The Home Front,” “Latina Civilians Who Served,” “Everyday Lives of Latinos and Latinas during WWII,” “Mexican Civilians who Worked in the U.S. during WWII,” “Post –War Opportunities and Contributions,” “The Fight for Civil Rights,” “The Value of Education,” “Community Notables,” and “Military Service Beyond WWII.” This book presents “mini-autobiographical” stories of the Latino/Hispanic soldier that participated in this important, and historically significant, world event(s). It is noteworthy that this book, and the accompanying Project, had/has “local ties,”, namely, San Diego State University’s Office of Educational Opportunities/Ethnic Affairs, and San Diego State University’s Department of Ethnic Studies. Also, the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Institute of Caribbean Studies and Centro de Investgaciones en Comunicación (Center for Communication Research), were also a part of the “Partnership” that took part in this important Project.    
 Of the approximately 450 individual stories that are written about in this moving book, I identified at least twelve (12) soldiers who were either born in Puerto Rico, or who identified themselves as being from (or “grew up”) within the United States, including Santos Deliz (New York, New York), Jose Blas Garcia, from Vega Alta, P.R., who was a member of the 65th Infantry Regiment, an all-volunteer Puerto Rican National Guard unit. He not only served in Panama, his battalion joined the 12th Air Force on the island of Corsica and was then sent to the Maritime Alps and Monte Cassino in Italy, and later was sent to France, as part of the war effort.
 Others who also served with the Puerto Rican 65th Infantry Regiment were Octavio Negron (Naranjito, PR), who served in both Panama and in France; Gonzalo Villanueva (Arecibo, PR), who served in Panama, North Africa and in Europe, including in Manheim, Germany; and lastly Dr. Frank Bonilla (New York City, NY), who also “served in the 290th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division, as a mortar gunner, and was [also] wounded on the front lines in the Battle of the Bulge.” Importantly, Dr. Bonilla (who earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in sociology), “…helped to found the Puerto Rican Hispanic Leadership Forum, later Aspira, to address the needs of Puerto Ricans in New York…. Serving with the predominantly Puerto Rican 65th Infantry, Bonilla found that the Puerto Rican soldiers considered themselves less part of the U.S. Army, and more part of the 65th.  He was also more aware of the divide between New York-born Puerto Ricans and those born on the island. The Puerto Ricans who had emigrated to the mainland were seen a ‘American Joes.’ Puerto Ricans from the island considered themselves ‘pure’ Puerto Ricans, Bonilla said.”    
 The book also identified several other Puerto Rican veterans of WWII.
 The final sentence of this historically significant cultural book is most telling, namely: “For the men and women interviewed as part of the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project, what they bequeathed to the generations that were to come was a legacy greater than words.

World War II, Puerto Rican Soldiers, and the “Greatest Generation”

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