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History project that highlights Latino WWII veterans celebrates milestone [1]
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Date: 2024-11-19
A national program created to document, preserve and disseminate the stories of Latino World War II veterans – to include 81 people with ties to El Paso – this month is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Austin.
The Voces Oral History Center, led by former El Paso-based reporter and current University of Texas at Austin journalism professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, expanded in 2009 to include stories of Latino Korean War and Vietnam War veterans as well as Latino politicians, civic leaders, educators and representatives in the arts and culture fields. Voces is Spanish for “voices.”
Since its inception, program representatives have interviewed and profiled more than 1,800 Latinos in 24 states, districts and territories. Rivas-Rodriguez said interviewees shared key points in their lives to include when they overcame adversity. By doing so, they cleared paths for others.
Among the accomplishments of these WWII veterans were the formation in 1948 of the G.I. Forum, a civil rights group that advocated for the rights of Latino veterans and their communities, the revitalization of the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the creation of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1968.
“I always say that had it not been for the work of that (World War II) generation of men and women, people like me would never have the opportunities we’ve had,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. “They were the ones who opened the doors. Sometimes they kicked open the doors. They made things happen, and I always will be grateful for that.”
El Paso’s Isaac “Ike” Camacho retired as an Army captain after having earned a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star during the Vietnam War. (Courtesy Voces Oral History Center / UT Austin) El Paso retired Army Capt. Isaac “Ike” Camacho, who earned a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star during the Vietnam War. (Courtesy Voces Oral History Center / UT Austin)
Among the El Pasoans interviewed by the center include retired Army Capt. Isaac “Ike” Camacho, who earned a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star during the Vietnam War; Air Force Lt. Col. Juan Provencio, who earned a Distinguished Flying Cross, a Bronze Star and other medals during a 30-year career where he saw action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam; civil rights leader Judge Albert Armendariz Sr., and Angel Esparza, an educator who became a computer programmer.
According to Los Veteranos, part of the National WWII Museum, more than 500,000 Latinos, including 350,000 Mexican Americans and 53,000 Puerto Ricans served in World War II. It stated that Latinos served with distinction throughout the war and the government awarded 13 Medals of Honor to Latinos for their actions during that conflict.
Air Force Lt. Col. Juan Provencio of El Paso. (Courtesy Voces Oral History Center)
Air Force Lt. Col. Juan Provencio of El Paso, seen here in May 2008, earned a Distinguished Flying Cross, a Bronze Star and other medals during a 30-year career where he saw action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. (Photo by Valentino Mauricio / Courtesy Voces Oral History Center)
Rivas-Rodriguez said during a phone interview that she came up with the idea for the oral history project while covering a court case in El Paso in 1992 for the Dallas Morning News. She learned from one of the founders of MALDEF that many Civil Rights “war horses” were World War II veterans.
The reporter decided to write an article for her paper’s magazine about the Civil Rights advancements of Mexican Americans who were part of the World War II generation. She said that many of the male interviewees said that despite being born in Texas, they did not identify as Americans because they were not treated like Americans – until they put on a military uniform.
Rivas-Rodriguez wrote her magazine article in 1993 and then pitched her oral history project idea. Her initial grant application was denied and then life intervened. She got married and started a family and moved from El Paso to pursue her Ph.D. in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
UT Austin hired her in 1998 as a tenure-track faculty member in the Moody College of Communication. She said administrators told her that she could teach what she wanted, but it would need to result in a publication. She started an Oral History as Journalism course.
Rivas-Rodriguez and her students, about 4,000 through the years, went throughout Texas to interview Latino World War II veterans.
During one El Paso stop, a volunteer interviewed Esparza, a Cathedral High School graduate who left the Texas College of Mines, now UTEP, to join the Army Air Corps after the U.S. entered the war. He trained as a pilot during the next three years but did not see combat. The government discharged him in 1946.
Angel Esparza at Napier Air Force Base in Dothan, Alabama, 1944. (Courtesy Voces Oral History Center / UT Austin)
Esparza returned to school and earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in geology. He worked as a science teacher at Jefferson High School before he took a job at Fort Bliss and became a computer programmer. He and his wife, Alicia, had 12 children – six boys and six girls. One of those boys was Jaime Esparza, the former longtime El Paso district attorney who now serves as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas.
One of Angel Esparza’s daughters, Dee Esparza, worked as a therapist at a veterans center in Austin as the Voces project was starting. She served as a project interviewer and recalled it being a wonderful experience for the Latino veterans.
She suggested Voces contact her father, who lived in East-Central El Paso. Her father gave his interview in 2003. She said during a telephone call from Austin that he was excited to participate and glad that people were interested in his story. He thought it was important to share stories of Latinos who had served in the war. He died in 2018.
“It was from a sense of history that he (agreed to the interview),” she said, adding that her father was pleased with the final product.
To date, the Voces program has produced five books, an annual peer-reviewed journal, and radio stories for National Public Radio. Additionally, the program organizes an annual institute for faculty and graduate students during Hispanic Heritage Month during the fall semester. Rivas-Rodriguez said she still wants to produce a documentary based on Voces material.
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[1] Url:
https://elpasomatters.org/2024/11/19/utep-ut-austin-world-war-ii-latinos-voces-oral-history-center/
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