There were many Latinos and Latinas that contributed to World War II yet many of their contributions are not recognized as other groups are. World War II was a turning point to many Americans; including many Latinos as it is estimated that 250,000 to 750,000 Latinos and Latinas served in World War II in the United States Armed forces and many of their contributions, like the ones of African Americans, weren’t recognized. The Oral History Project: Voces is an attempt to recognize these contributions as well as give a substantial contribution to public history in the form of oral testimonies of Latinos and Latinas personal stories from World War II. This website provides hundreds of photos, personal accounts and stories, and even oral history training videos for others to submit their oral testimonies.
The project started in 2006 and the oral history practitioners started digitizing thousands of oral testimonies which were done by the University of Texas. Many of the stories are based on interviews conducted by the students who worked on this project; some stories are tributes of persons who are deceased and some are stories written from information submitted for this project. Student journalists from Austin Texas are the oral history practitioners that wrote the stories from the people interviewed. These stories are edited by professional journalists , history professors, or professors of journalism. Later these stories are checked by two volunteer military historians and thus, checked again by the narrator, interviewed subject or their family members. These were publicized for an academic purposes as well as for pubic viewing.
The project itself can be viewed in alphabetical order according to the interviewee’s apellido or surname (last name), military wartime locale, city or state of birth (whether US citizens or not), or from which branch of service the person served (Army Navy, Air Force, or Marines). There were between 250,000 to 750,000 Latinos which served in service to the US government but the number can’t be accurately calculated due to the US race categorization during segregation. There were usually two militaries in most branches of service: the white military and the colored military. Usually you went before a commissioned officer and they determined on the spot if you were White, Native American, Black, and or Mexican. A Latino can be a member of any race so he could be placed in any of these groups. Thus, many were put into every racial category during the war. Many Latinas worked in civil service sector jobs and were supplying the military with labor as defense contractors and writing letter to soldiers while waiting for husbands, brothers, and sons to return. At the end of the war (where the story is continued), many Latinos went back to segregated neighborhoods (including Mexican Americans), and an unfriendly society similar to the one of discrimination of African Americans.
The war had developed a strong sense of pride and entitlement in them; obtaining educational benefits from military service which led them to fight inequality and racism. Even though many of these men who went to war fought for these basic dignities, made strong contributions and sacrifices to their country and community, they were ignored and shunned because of their race. Their histories were omitted from national archives. This is why this project is paramount in succeeding and vital to documenting these Latinos contributions and contributions of American soldiers to the United States of America.
From this material an exhibit called Images of Valor was created. Images of Valor were an attempt to give a visual aid in the form of photography from oral testimony. This exhibit includes images and themes form the project archive from interviewees. There is also a photo exhibit of modern photos from a contemporary photographer named Tino Maurico who is also a student at the University of Texas. There is also a play that was inspired by the project itself and was written and adapted to fit the interviews given during the project. This play was preformed by student actors in 2006 for the University of Texas in conjunction with the UT Austin’s Performing Arts Center.
The research in this project was intense and was done by scholars form very different disciplines. These disciplines include history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and journalism. A book publication is the ultimate goal of this project and is forthcoming; which is why other oral testimonies are necessary for more material for the project. This project wants to fully recognize all of the contributions from Latinos and Latinas during the World War II generation.
For more information check out the Oral History Project of The University of Texas.