Introduction.
In the early 1940s before WWII broke out, Mexican-American families
in Texas were living in difficult times. Some of the young people
were children of recent immigrants from Mexico. Others were from
families who had been in Texas for a century or longer. Their
social status as a group, however, was for the most part
identical. Many attended separate schools, which were
established for the Mexican-American children then known
as Mexicans. Not only were Mexican-Americans segregated in schools,
they were also separated by neighborhoods. In some towns, the young
men couldn't get a haircut in the towns in which they lived. Certain
restaurants wouldn't serve them, and many businesses wouldn't hire
them.
The Mexican-American families were known to be close.
Brothers and sisters cared deeply for each other and would
go to great lengths to protect one another. That devotion
and trust later transferred to their "buddies" in battle.
Most of the boys were
Catholic and almost all of them received la bendición.
The religious rite consisted of the person being blessed while
kneeling in front of the parents or relative The person giving
the blessing forms a cross with the hand over the person kneeling
while saying, "In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen." Other words and prayers may be added. Some boys were
given medallions, which represented a favorite saint. Other sons
were given previously blessed [by a Catholic priest]
tarjetas de oración [prayer cards] each of which had a
picture of a saint on one side and a special prayer
on the other. One Mexican-American veteran, now in his
late seventies, still carries his prayer card, which is now
a thin worn card with a faint image on one side and undecipherable
words on the other. He says the prayer card his
mother gave him in 1944 carried him through rain, sleet,
snow, and through three major battles in Europe! Other
boys had mothers who made promesas [religious promises].
If their sons arrived home safely, they would make a
pilgrimage to their favorite church.
Because money was scarce, the young men had rarely traveled outside
their hometowns. Their exposure to the outside world was nil.
One soldier said, "When I saw the windmills
in Holland, I couldn't believe I was seeing things I'd only read
about in my schoolbooks."
Some books say that 500,000 Mexican-American soldiers fought in WWII.
That may be a low estimate. Several veterans said, "My unit had lots
of Mexican-Americans." One veteran estimated that his unit had a least
thirty percent Mexican-Americans.
WWII, for the Mexican-American, was the great equalizer.
Once enlisted or drafted, the soldier was not asked where
he came from, or where he lived. No one cared
who his family was. "You're in the Army now!" meant
"You're like everybody else."
After the war these same brave men came home expecting the same
fair treatment they received as soldiers during the war. It was
not to be. Civil rights groups and the soldiers
themselves fought again, but this time it was for
equality in their homeland. As a result the veterans became
agents for positive change in their lives and
in the lives of others.
Not only had most of them left their homes for the first
time in their lives when they went to
war, but they had also acquired new feelings about themselves.
They knew they could get along with other men from other parts
of the country. They also knew they could do any job that they
had to do. They could follow leadership, and they could also
exercise authority when the occasion called for it. A veteran
who came home and later called for the investigation of an organization
received a threat. His response was, "After what I've been
through nothing scares me."
And so the men changed because of the war, and the world changed
because of them.
Excerpts.
Armando Flores said, "I belong to a Texas First Family, because
my folks have been in Texas since the 1750s." Even so, Armando
like all Mexican-American children, recent immigrants or not,
attended Cheston Heath Elementary, a segregated school located
in Corpus Christi, Texas. He said, "We went to a segregated
school five years and then the 6th grade was at
Northside Junior High School and at that time, Northside
Junior High School was the only Junior High School in town.
When we went up there in that particular year…1935…they
told us, 'We're going to take the kids from Crossley…we're going
to take the kids from Furman, but you kids from Cheston Heath–you
go back and repeat the 5th year.' They told Ismael Asauga Jr.,
'You can't come to school here; you've got to repeat the 5th
grade.' He went and told his father. His father
'raised a little Cain'; he got hold of a bunch of people,
went before the school board." Some changes occurred.
Armando and others lived a life of second-class citizenship
at school, in the workplace and in the neighborhood. Thus
Armando's first experience away from home in the army while
at boot camp came as a shock. "Most of the guys who were
there were Hispanics from South Texas…here was this
lieutenant on the platform…telling us…it was a
very, very cold day in February, very cold–and we were
there just in our overalls. We had forgotten to get our coats
on. Got up there in formation and we had to do calisthenics…
this lieutenant gets up there and says, "American soldiers don't
huddle and put their hands in their pockets on a cold day. They
stand at attention." And we stood at attention.
"All of a sudden the buzz went up and down the line…'Hey'…
this was in Spanish…'Hey, they called us Americans.' We felt a
little better."
Cesario Reyna of Houston, Texas at five feet two inches tall begged
to be allowed to join the army. With three brothers already in the
service he chose not be left out. He lost an eye at age two but
managed, nonetheless, to survive in the city. When called to
the service and after going through his physical, the army
informed him that he couldn't be in the service. Cesario: "The
Lieutenant said, 'Son you can't go because you can't see out of
one eye.' I said, 'You don't need but one eye to shoot.' So I
went up there to talk to a major or colonel. They motioned me
over there so I went. By that time we were all naked because
they were examining us. He said, 'We just can't pass you.' I
said, 'Why?' 'On account of your eye.' Well, I said, 'I'm sure
I wouldn't have no trouble shooting.' He said, 'No.'
"I argued with them so long they finally said, 'OK. We're going
to take you but you won't be going overseas.' I said, 'Well, OK.
That's all right.' That's how I got into the service."
Shortly thereafter Cesario shipped out overseas with the
4th Army, Company 934, Heavy Automotive.
Saragosa A. Garcia, Tech 5 with the 197th
Battalion,Triple A, Automatic Weapons said, "We landed
at 7:30 or 8:00 A.M. on Omaha Beach. (June 6, 1944).
The infantry had already gone in. We lost fifteen
half-tracks from our battalion. We went on the side
of the beach where everybody was firing–my Sergeant
and I went down there. The LCI was full with half-tracks.
We went up to unload it. The soldiers run away. They were
scared. We went up to unload. You take the pin out like
that. Half a pin. You get the ramp down. And a German (fired)
whoosh. The bullet went right by me. So I took off and
started digging. That guy shoot at us and one of them 88s
blow the thing away. My half-track was on the side of the
beach. It was way off. The Captain was trying to get the
guys to fire half-track gun-20mm cannon. The Captain, gunner,
corporal and a Pfc. were killed. A new Captain came on."
Miraculously, Saragosa returned to Houston, Texas where he
married and with his wife raised a family. The bible a church
member gave him before he left remained intact and
returned with him.
Santiago Jaramillo, E Troop, 12th Cavalry B
Troop, 8th Cavalry, Mechanical from
Kingsville, Texas, and fighting on various islands in the
Pacific said, "Let me tell you…how many close calls.
Sgt. Leonard had a cigarette in his mouth and he said, 'Jerry,
give me a light…I had a big cigarette…and when
I put–I was lighting his cigarette, this sniper shot
him right between the eyes. He froze…like this…
(rigid)… He didn't move; he was just leaning against
a palm tree. And he shot the antenna…from my side…
of the radio. The radio was in my backpack. He died standing
in front of the tree; he froze."
A.D. Azios, Laredo, Texas, fighting with the 9th Armored
Division 60th Infantry Battalion, said, "When I was
captured, I spoke German to the guys. Some people have told me
that that probably saved my life. I was in a house in the basement;
I had been wounded. I had been left there by the captain. He told
me and two other guys who had been slightly wounded, 'Stay here and
don't go anywhere.' The two other guys looked at me and thought…
'We do what we want later on'…because it got worse later on.
I had a big patch here. I couldn't fight then. So he told me to
get in the basement and stay there.
"How could I go anywhere anyway? I lost my rifle. So he left on the
16th. And that was the Command Post. That's where the
radios are in operation. You hear a lot of talking. They left on Dec
16, 1944. We waited. It was in a house, which was at
#19 Grand Rue, was in Beaufort, Luxemburg.
A.D. Azios, captured shortly after being wounded,
spent the rest of his time in the service as a POW
in various Stalags all the while using the language
he had learned at the University of Nebraska. After
the war he returned to the University of Texas in Austin.
After attending law school, A.D. located in Houston where
he and his wife raised a family. In time he was elected
as a district judge.
Noe Mendez from Benavides, Texas, fought with the 1st
Infantry Division. About the Battle of the Bulge he said, "The
men were told to hold on to a particular area. We returned (from
a short rest) to find that all our replacements had been
killed. During a night patrol assignment, a German threw
a hand grenade in my direction. My left shoulder was severely
injured and the blow on my helmet knocked me out. A fellow
soldier Julian Martinez picked me up and took me to
the Command Post. Another soldier from Benavides,
Jose Amador Garza, was killed at that time. Because of the
fighting, there was no quick way to move me so that I could
receive medical attention. So I lay injured for twelve
hours. Finally, after twelve hours I was taken to a First
Aid Station and later to Tutton, England to a hospital. As
the ship carried me to England to a hospital, I awoke to find
myself lying on the floor of the ship surrounded by
German and British soldiers, all wounded and defenseless."
Noe Mendez returned to Texas and settled in Corpus Christi, Texas.
He found out that for him, there were no job opportunities.
Rejection became a rule. The Texas Highway Department,
refineries, the Sheriff's department…all of these
jobs went to persons other than Hispanics. The fact that
these men had fought for the freedom of the citizens of this
country was quickly forgotten. Organizations such as LULAC
and the American G.I. Forum effected changes that finally
benefited our fighting men.
Eventually, Noe Mendez opened up his own business. Now he enjoys
working with his son, the owner of his own construction business.
Jorge Flores, WWII
