Guest Editorial: Veterans' Day: Saluting a Forgotten Force

Summary

---

Despite their heroics, Latinos served in obscurity. The 1960 movie "From Here to Eternity" was based on the story of Marine PFC Guy Gabaldon. The movie accurately portrayed his single-handed capture of nearly 1,500 Japanese in the South Pacific islands of Saipan, Tinian and the Marianas. However, movie's producers ignored the fact this hero was a U.S.-born Latino and cast Jeffrey Hunter as an "Italian" Gabaldon.

Another example of overlooking Latino contributions was the 2008 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) series "The War." The original 14.5-hour series on WWII failed to feature any of the half-million Spanish-surnamed soldiers and sailors who served the USA in the "Big One."

* Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez of Guatemala was among the first to make the ultimate sacrifice for his "country of choice." He died March 21, 2003 in combat near the Iraqi port city of Umm Qas. Cpl. Gutierrez was granted citizenship under a 2002 Executive Order allowing families of those "killed in action" to apply for posthumous citizenship - a symbolic gesture that provides no benefits for families of those killed serving our country.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Guest Editorial: Veterans' Day: Saluting a Forgotten Force

Millions of Latinos are proud of their history of military service to our nation. To discover they have defended the USA against all enemies, from the Revolutionary War to the current conflicts in Afghanistan, one must cull through volumes of research, academic dissertations, or tomes of Spanish-language and Latino literature, because this history is not common knowledge.

Among the earliest m...

See the full content of this document

---