The Forgotten Soldiers: Mexican-American Soldiers of WWII and the Creation of the G.I. Forum

Abstract

The Forgotten Soldiers: Mexican-American Soldiers of WWII and the Creation of the G.I. Forum By Niko Arredondo I | Introduction “M y time in the military was the greatest time of my life, I am very proud and I would do it as many times necessary.” Virgilio G. Roel, a Mexican-American WWII veteran stated in his interview with the Voces Oral History project. 1 The 1940s brought a time of great opportunity for Mexican-Americans with the onset of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Before the war, Mexican-Americans lived under racial tension with segregated communities, segregated schools and not many held respected professions such as lawyers and doctors. For Roel and other Mexican American soldiers this opportunity to fight for a nation that treated them as second class citizens became the beginning of a social change for Mexican-Americans. As Raul Morin, a WWII Mexican-American war veteran mentioned in his book, Among The Valiant, “here now was the opportunity to do something about it.” 2 The integration of Mexican-American and white soldiers took effect with the Executive Order 8066 that passed in June of 1941. This posed questions like: how did the experience for Mexican-Americans with white soldiers differ from their experience in America? What postwar impacts did it have for Mexican Americans? Their experience during the war was unique, in the sense that they integrated with white soldiers unlike African-American soldiers that were placed in segregated units. To Mexican-Americans WWII veterans, the war offered an opportunity to demonstrate their allegiance to their nation. It proved that they fought beyond the home front of America. And yet, with as much discrimination and segregation Mexican- Americans had in America before the war, WWII offered a completely different experience than they anticipated. It offered them the same opportunity as whites to gain a higher rank within the armed forces and a relationship with white soldiers that they never had prior to the war. When the war waned down to an end and more Mexican-American soldiers returned home they looked to the promising opportunity that things in America would be better, however, the same social issues that Mexican-Americans faced before they went off to war still remained upon their return from the war. War veterans grew disappointed and outraged with the way America continued to treat them as second-class citizens. As a result of second-class treatment, Mexican-American war veterans created the G.I. Forum, with the direct goal of helping War veterans and later Mexican-Americans civil rights. For the most part, Chicano historians and scholars largely ignored the topic of Mexican-American soldiers in WWII until fairly recently. The history of Mexican-American soldiers’ involvement in WWII is largely ignored. In popular culture, WWII is presented from the perspective of thousands of White and Black soldiers that fought valiantly. For historians and scholars, the discussion of Mexican-American soldiers has not been approached until fairly recently. Through the 1960s only one book, Among The Valiant, by Raul Morin, discussed the role and impacts