Protesting ‘The War’

HARLINGEN — A group of men held yellow and orange signs Friday that read “Hispanic World War II Vets were excluded. Why?”

The men also held American flags and black-and-white Prisoner of War/Missing in Action flags as they protested Ken Burns’ documentary series, “The War,” which is scheduled to premier Sunday on PBS stations across the country.

“We want to make sure that the public knows — especially PBS and this affiliate here, KMBH — that we are opposed to the airing of this documentary by Ken Burns,” Veterans of Foreign Wars District 18 Commander M. Felix Rodriguez said. “It’s an inaccurate portrayal of the diversity of the groups that contributed to the victory over our enemies during World War II.”

Rodriguez and four other veterans, all of whom have fathers, fathers-in-law or uncles who served during World War II, stood in an empty field Friday across the street from the KMBH-TV60 building with their signs and flags.

“They left us out,” veteran Maximo Belmarez said. “Mexicans played a big part of the war. It was not puros gueritos fighting.”

Veteran Efrain Solis said that even though Burns added segments to his documentary featuring Latino and Native American veterans, it was only after various groups protested.

“It’s an afterthought,” Solis said.

Eduardo Casas, a retired Marine and retired teacher from the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district, said that his biggest worry is that teachers will use the documentary as an educational tool.

“That’s my concern as an educator,” Casas said. “It’s inaccurate. That’s a worry. It will give the wrong message to young students.”

Casas said documentarians have a responsibility to do thorough and complete research because documentaries are often used in classrooms.

Questions regarding the protest were directed to the e-mail account of KMBH general manager Monsignor Pedro Briseño, who did not respond as of Friday.

The documentary sparked protests and threats to boycott products of the series’ sponsors among other activities throughout the nation and even prompted some cartoonists to dedicate their comic strips to telling the stories of Hispanic World War II veterans, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press also reported that Burns and PBS reached an agreement with a Hispanic veterans group to add a segment that includes content from Native American and Latino veterans.

But Rodriguez, fellow veterans and historians said that is not enough, calling it “a slap in the face.”

“What he is saying is (Hispanic and Native American veterans) didn’t participate or contribute to the success in winning the war… it is an insult to me but more of an insult to my dad,” Rodriguez said.

Jennifer Mata, a history professor at University of Texas-Pan-American, said leaving out that history could lead to issues of identity problems for younger generations because they won’t see their ancestors’ contributions.

Mata and fellow UTPA history professor Amy Hay said World War II was a significant war for Hispanics as well as other minorities because they were fighting against discrimination abroad while facing it in their own country.

Trinidad Gonzales, a history instructor at South Texas College in McAllen, said he hopes this will encourage more Hispanic veterans and their families to record their histories.

Gonzales said he is working with Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez — a University of Texas at Austin professor who is working on recording oral histories of Hispanics alive during World War II — on recording the histories of veterans throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

Rivas-Rodriguez also founded Defend the Honor campaign that criticizes what it calls Burns’ omission of Hispanic and Native American veterans in the documentary.

“The bottom line is we can’t just allow the documentary (to be) considered to be a true reflection of what was going on in World War II,” Rivas-Rodriguez said.