Beyond the Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation (review)

The nine articles presented in the book Beyond The Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation break more ground on what has been considered to be a watershed historical period for Latina/o communities in the U.S. As the second scholarly anthology to emerge from the now twelve-year U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History Project at the University of Texas at Austin, Beyond the Latino World War II Hero highlights how involvement in the Second World War was significant for primarily Mexican American and Puerto Rican communities both during the period under study and in subsequent decades. As the title suggests, the book calls for a critical re-examination of the representation of Latinas/os during the Second World War, thus directly challenging prior scholarship that ignored or paid scant attention to their presence. The oral history interviews utilized throughout these essays serve as an important resource in this counter.

At least two central themes are reflected in this work. Firstly, several of the articles affirm the degree of transformation and agency that was realized for Latina/o soldiers, families, and communities affected by the war. In “Latinas of World War II: From Familial Shelter to Expanding Horizons,” for example, Joanne Rao Sánchez highlights the positive impact for twenty-one Latinas who were able to move beyond forms of racial and gender discrimination by gaining a measure of economic mobility for the first time. In “Embracing Ether: The Use of Radio by the Latino World War II Generation,” book co-editor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez gives attention to the importance of Spanish-language radio for Latina/o soldiers during the War, which very much provided a sense of belonging in an environment in which the English language was predominant. “The very act of listening to Spanish-language radio,” according to Rivas-Rodríguez, “was an act of resistance for them” (37). In “Mother’s Legacy: Cultivating Chicana Consciousness During the War Years,” Brenda Sendejo argues how the war served as an important catalyst in the formation of an early feminist consciousness, influencing the subsequent generation of Chicana scholars and activists. And in “God and War: The Impact of Combat Upon Latino Soldiers’ Religious Beliefs,” Rea Ann Trotter examines the long-term reliance on spirituality for eighteen Latina/o veterans who survived and returned home. For these veterans, their very survival instilled in them a greater sense of purpose for living and a desire to help others.

Secondly, while the Second World War was indeed transformational for Latina/o communities, other essays included in this anthology call attention to persisting forms of neglect and inequality. In “Silent Wounds: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Latino World War II Veterans,” Ricardo Ainslie and Daphny Domínguez examine the often neglected impact of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affecting approximately ten to fifteen percent of combat veterans. Ainslie and Domínguez demonstrate through four oral history interviews how the “horrors of war” also extended to family members of returning soldiers with PTSD. In “The Paradox of War: Mexican American Patriotism, Racism, and Memory,” Richard Griswold del Castillo highlights the central dilemma, what he calls “conflicted consciousness,” confronting eight Mexican American veterans who engaged in the war as an expression of their patriotism “while experiencing second-class citizenship” (11). Silvia Álvarez Curbelo, in “The Color of War: Puerto Rican Soldiers and Discrimination During World War II,” comes to a similar conclusion in her analysis of the treatment of Puerto Rican soldiers who were subjected to varied practices of racial exclusion within the military. In “Now Get Back to Work: Mexican Americans and the Agricultural ‘Migrant Stream’”, Dionicio Valdés relies on two sources of oral history interviews, the U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History Project and the Mexican American History Collection at the California...