WWII project founder to kick of Latino Heritage Month at ECC
Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez believes that serving one's country extends beyond war.
Instead, she said, a tour of duty may spark a lifetime commitment to patriotism and social justice, even while being treated as a second-class civilian.
Rivas-Rodriguez, the founder of the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project, will kick of Elgin Community College's Latino Heritage Month celebration with a breakfast talk AT 8 a.m. Friday, Sept. 12, on Hispanics at the College's Fox Valley University and Business Center.
The former reporter for The Dallas Morning News said she got the idea for the project while working on a 1992 reporting assignment about a lawsuit involving Texas border universities.
One of Rivas' contacts was Peter Tijerina, the founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a World War II veteran.
During an interview, Tijerina commented that many Latinos involved in civil rights issues served in World War II. The G.I. Bill, he told her, afforded many Latino veterans the opportunity to attend law school and later fight for educational equality and desegregation.
"A light went on above my head," Rivas-Rodriguez said.
Years later, as a faculty member at the University of Texas, Rivas embarked on the oral history project, interviewing more than 650 men and women since the spring of 1999.
The war, a turning point for the United States, affected Latinos just as much as other groups throughout the country, Rivas said.
According to the project, anywhere from 250,000 to 750,000 Latinos served in the armed forces during the war.
The large range in the number of veterans, Rivas said, is due to the fact that under race categorization, enlistment and discharge papers, Latinos were sometimes described as "White," "Mexican," or "NA."
"Latinos in some ways were like any other Americans who were part of the war effort," Rivas said. "They did their work without expecting anything in return."
However, coming home often meant a return to segregated communities and treatment as second-class citizens, Rivas-Rodriguez said.
"It was like, 'Thanks for doing your job, but now take your seat in the back, upstairs.' They lived through that, and are still the most patriotic people that you can imagine," Rivas-Rodriguez said.
On Friday, she will share those stories, emphasizing the importance of understanding Latinos' contributions to the country.
"If people don't understand that, we're not going to feel that we deserve to be treated with a lot of dignity."
Tickets to the breakfast are $10 for students, $15 for adults. After the talk, the college will hold more than a dozen Latino Heritage Month events, including a Latino health care awareness day on Oct. 2, a Latino read-in chain on Oct. 3, a film festival and weekly lunch hour presentations on Latino music and cuisine.
For a full schedule, visit www.elgin.edu.