Answering Their Country’s Call
In the book,
Among the Valiant, Mexican-Americans in World War II and Korea,
by Raul Morin, he chronicles the extraordinary and little-known heroics of
Mexican-Americans in combat. One such
story tells of Company E, 144th Regiment of the 36th
(Texas) Division, the “all Chicano Infantry Unit.”
According to
Morin, the soldiers were all Spanish-speaking, and included Mexicans,
Mexican-Americans, and “so-called Latin-Americans.” Most were former members of
other units, including the Texas National Guard. Thus, while other companies
filled their ranks with “raw recruits”, Company E was “up to full strength with
seasoned and well-conditioned GI’s.”
The unit says
Morin, shipped out of Staten Island in 1943, bound for Europe. “Everyone agreed
that Easy Company ‘era la mas alegre.’” They kept each other company on board with
songs, corridos, boleros and rancheras,
skits, and comedy acts using language from the barrios they had come from,
aboard two ships, the “Argentina”, and the “Brazil.”
Among the
first Americans to land in Italy, they led the assault on Salerno on September
9, 1943. “They waded right into the
thick of things, [and] within one hour the ‘boys’ in E Company became men, battling
back and forth with the Nazi defenders,” and it wasn’t long before one of them
distinguished himself with bravery, “a tall, bronze-faced Chicano Sergeant named Manuel S. Gonzalez, better known to his
friends as ‘El Feo’ (the ugly one).”
His unit had
been pinned down by mortars and a Nazi machine-gun nest, and as he crawled
toward the German lines, a grenade exploded beside him, wounding him in the
back and in one hand. “But he did not stop until he reached the German
position.” Says Morin, “when Gonzalez came crawling back to his outfit, the
mortars and the machine gun had been silenced. He earned himself a Distinguished
Service Cross, in the process and the respect of his men.
Morin goes
on the document many engrossing tales of the bravery and bravado of Mexican
American soldiers who distinguished themselves in combat, seventeen of whom
were awarded Congressional Medals of Honor, and many more were awarded lesser
awards.
