Roberto Clemente was an extraordinary baseball player with a presence that captivated fans, especially young people. Known for his powerful hitting, swift base-running, and an arm likened to a “rifle” for its strength and precision, Clemente left an unforgettable mark on the game. While he loved baseball, his devotion to his family and his homeland of Puerto Rico came above all else.

Today, baseball showcases players from many ethnic backgrounds, but there was a time when Latino players faced severe discrimination. Although Jackie Robinson’s entry into Major League Baseball in 1947 marked the beginning of integration, progress remained slow and uneven. For Latino players, even in the 1960s, segregation persisted, as they were often barred from staying in the same hotels or eating in the same restaurants as their white teammates during spring training in the South.

The Pittsburgh Pirates

Roberto Clemente (1934-1972) persevered, playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates for eighteen seasons. He won four national League batting titles; 12 Gold Gloves, recognizing his work as a defense player in right field. Remarkably, he achieved 3000 hits during his career (one of only ten players to do by 1972 when Clemente hit that record. He was also the first Puerto Rican to be voted Most Valuable Player (1971 World Series). Later, he was selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Clemente’s values involved doing all he could for his country of birth. Whenever he had the opportunity, he ran baseball clinics for children there, as that was an opportunity that he never had.

During the baseball season, he visited children in the local hospitalswhere the team played.

He died during the baseball off-season when he was in a plane crash taking supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve 1972.

Early Life

Roberto Enrique Clemente was the youngest of seven siblings born to Luisa Walker in Carolina, Puerto Rico. His father, Melchor, was a foreman for a sugar cane enterprise. Resources were tight, so Melchor Clemente’s sons often worked alongside their father. Sugar cane is heavy and hard to handle so the boys became strong doing the work.

Both parents set an example of hard work and discipline. His mother took care of the family but she and Melchor also committed to providing lunch to many of the sugar cane workers. Luisa rose early every day to prepare the midday meal.

In high school, Roberto Clemente was a great athlete. He became a track and field star, participating in high jump and the javelin throw. But his preference for sports play was baseball.

Baseball in the Barrio

Baseball was a popular street game in the barrios, but in the Carolina district, many of the children did not have money for equipment. Clemente and his brothers sometimes used a broomstick or a Guava branch as a bat.

They often lacked a baseball, so they used a paper ball, a rubber ball, or a lumpy sphere of strings and old rags, according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. 

During one barrio game, Clemente was noticed by an executive with the Sello Rojo rice company. The company sponsored a softball team, and the fellow recruited Clemente to play for them.  

Getting Noticed By the Dodgers

While still in high school, he signed with the Puerto Rican baseball team, the Santurce Cangrejeros, a winter league team supported by the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. The first year he saw little play, but during the second year he was on the starting lineup. A scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers noticed him.

In 1954, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered Roberto Clemente a contract with a signing bonus. Following the Baseball League rules, players paid more than $4,000 as a signing bonus were considered “Bonus Babies.”  Clemente’s bonus was $10,000 to sign.

According to the League, the teams were to abide by certain rules with bonus babies. The signing  player was not to be shipped off to a farm team at the beginning of his contract. He was to stay with the team that signed him, playing when he could. In theory, this was a good idea, but bonus babies were young players and needed more opportunity to play before working with the Major Leagues, so in many cases, it was counter productive.

The Brooklyn Dodgers must have hoped that no one would notice that they placed Clemente with an affiliated team, the Montreal Royals. They wanted him to have more playing experience, but the coach of the Royals was told, “If you notice baseball scouts in the crowd, bench him.”

They knew Clemente was special, and they didn’t want him seen and possibly drafted by another team. 

Return to Puerto Rico For the Winter League

Customarily, Black and Latino players finished the regular baseball season in the U.S., and then joined a team to play for a Latin American country for the winter season. These players made less money than their white counterparts. They loved the game, but it also offered the opportunity to increase their income.

After Clemente finished his second season with the Royals, he returned to play ball with a Puerto Rican team as he always did. It was probably there that he was spotted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. According to Rule 5 in baseball, if the team that signed a “bonus baby” violates the contract, then Rule 5 permitted other teams to make offers.

Someone with the Pirates must have known that Clemente was playing for the Montreal Royals, so they bought out Clemente’s contract with a payment to the Dodgers of $4,000.

By the mid-1950s, Clemente was on his way to Pittsburgh.

Father Comes to a Few Games

 Melchor Clemente was a hard-working man. He loved his family but he didn’t have time for side interests or hobbies.  Finally, when Roberto was playing in the winter league and making a name for himself, Melchor agreed to come to a game. In an anecdote from David Maraniss’ book, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, Maraniss writes that Melchor did not understand baseball.

After one of the games, Melchor told his son he was very sorry that he was relegated to run around to all the bases when most of the others got up to bat and then got to sit down.

Joined the Marine Reserve

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birthright. Because Roberto Clemente was a patriotic man to both Puerto Rico and America, he was proud to sign up for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1958. His training involved six months active service, split between Parris Island, South Carolina, and Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.

He ultimately said that the strength training he did with the military helped him overcome back problems he suffered since his car had been hit by a drunk driver when Clemente was only 20.

Personal Life

While home in Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente became smitten by a young woman he met. It took persistence for Clemente to get Vera Zabala to agree to go out with him. Then when it worked out between them, he worked hard to persuade Vera and her father to agree to a marriage.

The couple was married in November of 1964. It was a great marriage. They had three children. The discriminatory atmosphere in the United States made both Vera and Roberto very uncomfortable. Vera visited when Clemente was in the U.S. but tended not to stay long

Both Vera and Roberto felt strongly that their children should be born in Puerto Rico, so each time, she was pregnant, she returned home.

The two were also united in the charity work that Clemente found important and rewarding.

Segregation

Both Latino and Black players continued to face discrimination in the United States, even as late as the 1960s.

Because Clemente was one of the first Latino players to qualify for a major league team in the United States, he often encountered discrimination. Three Latino baseball players, Victor Pellot, Hiram Bithorn, and Luis Olmo, known as the Three Kings—preceded him. There were still many obstacles to overcome.

When the team traveled, he could not travel or eat or stay with the team because of “whites only” restrictions. The practice was that the Black and Latino players wait on the bus while the white players went into a restaurant for a meal. When the team came out, they would bring food for the waiting team members.

Clemente was both saddened and angry by this and felt that there should be no “second class” team members.

By 1961, Clemente was sick of this treatment and complained bitterly. The Pittsburgh Courier, a Black newspaper, took up his campaign. Team management finally responded, but the solution was not to let the men join their white friends. They were provided with a station wagon. Instead of traveling on the bus, the minority players were able to drive themselves to the next destination and look for restaurants where they could be fed.

He and the team’s Cuban shortstop were placed with Black families in Pittsburgh because they could not stay with the team.

Visceral Understanding of the Civil Rights Movement

Clemente became friends with Martin Luther King, Jr, and the two men enjoyed the opportunities they had to talk together.

King was in Memphis in April of 1968 to aid the sanitation workers who were on strike. He was assassinated while there.

Clemente was beside himself at the loss of his friend and the civil rights leader. King was to be buried on April 9, and yet Clemente and his team were to start the new season on April 8 of that year. Led by Clemente, the Black players refused to play unless opening day was moved to April 10 so the players could attend the funeral.

As the Major League management saw what had happened, they wisely moved the opening day for all teams. Despite that, the early games took place against the backdrop of civil unrest in more than 100 cities. 

Demons

Roberto Clemente was first to admit that he had many demons. The car accident when he was only 20 dislodged three of the discs in his lower spine. Low back pain followed him the rest of his career. Every game was preceded by a trip to the team trainer.

He had great difficulty sleeping, perhaps partly because of the back pain. His disrupted sleep was particularly vexing during baseball season when he couldn’t get the rest he needed.

In all likelihood, the chronic pain led to many of his other health concerns. However in the winter of 1965, he came down with malaria and was seriously ill. He was hospitalized and lost almost 25 pounds.

To have been seriously ill only compounded his anxiety about his aches and pains. The media sometimes wrote of him as a hypochondriac. This further angered him.

Baseball Achievements

As a baseball player, he was beloved by the public and seemed to have a magnetic appeal. Clemente was known for excellent out fielding. He could catch and throw whatever came his direction. He had a strong arm, powerful wrists, and one writer described him as having eyes in his fingertips—his catches were so uncanny.

He earned 12 Gold Gloves for outstanding fielding, and he emerged from his career with 3,000 hits and was a four-time batting champion. He was also selected as outstanding player of 1971 World Series. (For complete statistics on Roberto Clemente, see his Major League Baseball page.

Because he stayed in such good shape throughout his career, reporters were always looking for answers to his eating and exercise routine. He got tired of answering the question as he got older and started telling writers that he put in a hard 3-hour workout during the off-season. In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth. He was more likely to be at home doing small repairs on the house than at the gym exercising.

The Bats He Preferred

At the time, Clemente became one of the baseball players that had 3000 hits in his career, he was one of only ten players. (Today that number is only 33 players. It’s an exclusive club.)

Fans loved watching him when he came up for bat. He preferred heavier bats. They were a challenge to lift, but Clemente made it look easy.

He originally used a bat made by Hillerich & Bradsby, commercialized as the Louisville Slugger bat.  Later in his career, he came to prefer a bat that was made by the same company but was originally made for a baseball player named Bernard Bartholomew “Frenchy” Uhalt. Uhalt played in the Pacific Coast League, and while his career spanned only 57 games in the minor leagues, he became well-known because Roberto Clemente came to favor his bat.

At the end of the season, Clemente generally met with a representative from Hillerich & Bradsby. He knew everything about the bats he liked, and one of the points he made was that the bats should be made of wide grains, He knew that wide grains were from summer growth, and that was what he preferred.

He tested the bats by swinging them against each other and could identify based on the sound.

Just before his death, the company was at work on a new model for him. In late December, they sent two versions of the bat so he could choose. Sadly, he likely never held either in his hands.

At the Plate

Fans loved watching him approach home plate when it was his turn to bat. He never smiled. He sometimes took with him two or three bats to the on-deck circle. According to Davad Maraniss, he carried them all in one hand and then put one knee down to check the bats again. He then made his selection, and clearly his system worked

Good Works

While Roberto Clemente’s time for other activities was limited during the baseball season, one deed he could do was visit children in hospitals, which he faithfully did. He generally sorted through the letters himself to decide which place he had time to visit.

After his career, he aspired to build a “sports city” in Puerto Rico so that kids would have opportunities he never had. Even before he retired, he ran clinics for kids whenever he could. (Today 30 percent of baseball players are Latino, the largest group of players in the MLB.)

Pride in Puerto Rico

Clemente took to heart that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens, and he couldn’t understand the condescending attitude he encountered time and again.

His love for his home country was sincere, and he wished to be respected for his patriotism to his place of birth. When the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series in 1971, Clemente made his first remarks in Spanish, paying homage to the values and skills that he learned there.

Even once he had been in the Major Leagues for a time, he always tried to return to play in the winter league in Puerto Rico. He wanted to do all he could to make the lives of his people better.

He and Vera also wanted all three of their children born there, so even if she was with Roberto for part of the year, she went home before her due date was near.

Good Works

While Roberto Clemente’s time for other activities was limited during the baseball season, one deed he could do was visit children in hospitals, which he faithfully did. He generally sorted through the letters himself to decide which place he had time to visit.

After his career, he aspired to build a “sports city” in Puerto Rico so that kids would have opportunities he never had. Even before he retired, he ran clinics for kids whenever he could. (Today 30 percent of baseball players are Latino, the largest group of players in the MLB.)

Earthquake in Nicaraugua

In late 1972, Roberto Clemente served as manager of the Puerto Rico national baseball team at the Amateur World Series. The games ended in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.

When Managua experienced a massive earthquake in December of 1972, Clemente was deeply affected by the difficulties the country faced. He immediately started collecting food and supplies the people would need, in addition to raising money

The goods began being shipped to Nicaragua, but soon word came to Clemente that the money and the supplies were not getting through to the residents most affected by the disaster. Political graft was siphoning off money and supplies.

With that information, Clemente decided he had no choice but to take the latest collection of supplies to Nicaragua himself. A friend helped him find a plane he could charter. Neither of them knew that the airplane had been poorly maintained, and the pilot who was hired at the last minute had no experience with this particular plane.

The results were disastrous.  With Clemente on board, the plane took off. Almost immediately the aircraft dove into the water. All was lost and Roberto Clemente’s body was never recovered.

It was a sad day for baseball; a sad day for America, and an absolute tragedy for his family and the people of Puerto Rico who revered him.

Hall of Fame

The sports world was so stunned by the tragedy, they opted out of the five-year rule on when players were eligible for the Hall of Fame. Eleven weeks after the plane went down, Roberto Clemente was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Clemente once said:
“If you have a chance to help others and don’t, you are wasting your time on this earth…” 

Also read about Roy Campanella.

The method by which yellow fever spread was proposed by Dr. Carlos Finlay (1833-1915), a Cuban physician. It took twenty more years for the Reed Board (Army Surgeon Walter Reed) to definitively prove Finlay’s theory that the disease was carried by the mosquito. Once scientists understood this, they could move forward to reduce the incidence of yellow fever in tropical climates.

In the United States, this was important in the southern states where the weather was often subtropical. The discovery was also crucial in Panama where the U.S. invested heavily to build a canal to reduce the shipping time of goods from the East to California and the West.

About Yellow Fever

Yellow fever was a terrifying disease in the 17^th, 18^th and 19th centuries. The illness was devastating—killing many and sickening even more. Because so many people got sick, economic disruption inevitably followed. Communities were terrified of outbreaks.

Yellow fever predominated in tropical areas of Africa and Central and South America, but it sometimes spread to parts of the United States.

Today there is an effective vaccine, but the search for a way to prevent it or treat it took on more urgency in the late 1800s and early 1900s. People were moving into regions where yellow fever outbreaks occurred.

The spread of disease frequently interrupted construction of the badly-wanted Panama Canal.  After 22,000 deaths, the French company attempting to build it pulled out.

Studying the Illness

Scientists saw that they could not prevent the illness unless they learned how it traveled from person to person. Belief in germ theory was still relatively new, so while some doctors felt better sanitation would help reduce spread of the disease, others returned to an old theory that illness traveled by miasma (bad air). As late as 1898, a Marine Hospital Service Report wrote that better management of “railway travel” would help reduce the incidence of the disease. Among their recommendations were that rail cars should have cane seats instead of upholstery. This fell under the belief that inanimate objects could spread the disease.

About Carlos Finlay

Finlay was born in 1833 in Puerto Principe (now Camagüey), Cuba. His mother was French and his father, a doctor, was Scottish. The couple relocated to Cuba before his birth and embraced the country as their own, but as their son became old enough for school, they sent him to Europe for his education.

Twice he returned to Cuba for a prolonged period because of illness. When he eventually finished the equivalent of secondary education in Europe, he attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia for his medical degree.

In 1855 he returned to Havana to establish a medical practice. Finlay was known as a kindly man who would not turn away patients even when they could not pay.

Finlay was also a devoted scientific researcher and was fascinated by epidemiology. Cuba often had outbreaks of yellow fever and malaria, and Finlay spent his spare time trying to find the cause. His focus was on yellow fever.

Focus on Yellow Fever

During the 1870s, Finlay noticed that yellow fever cases spiked in areas where the mosquito population was high. He theorized that perhaps a mosquito was the carrier (vector) of the disease.

In 1881, he was invited to present a paper to the International Sanitary Commission that was meeting in Washington, D.C.  His talk put forward his belief that the vector for yellow fever was the mosquito. Finlay identified the Culex (now Aedes aegypti) mosquito as the specific carrier. While some took his report under consideration, many were derisive in their comments.  One reason for skepticism was likely because at that time, only one relatively rare illness– filariasis, caused by the parasitic roundworm–was thought to be spread by mosquito.

Though he was disappointed that no one stepped in to do more research, he stayed in Havana to continue his medical practice and progress on his scientific research. He ultimately contributed at least 40 articles on the disease. 

Americans Take More Interest

Yellow fever outbreaks had occurred in the United States in New Orleans, Mississippi and even Philadelphia. The United States became more interested in understanding yellow fever after many Americans fighting in the Spanish-American War became ill with yellow fever. (The Spanish, too, suffered greatly.)  The United States also wanted the Panama Canal to be finished. Thus far, disease kept halting progress.

Since the 1850s, America and parts of Europe wanted a faster trade route through Central America to avoid the long voyage by ship around Cape Horn. In 1881, the French attempted to span Panama with a canal which would greatly speed the trip. They brought with them the experience of having built the Suez Canal, but they found the engineering challenges in Panama to be far greater than those they had addressed in Egypt.

But it was tropical disease that ultimately halted progress. Both the French engineers and the local labor force suffered mightily from various tropical diseases, particularly yellow fever and malaria.  From 1881-1889 (the duration that France spent trying to build the canal), it is estimated that over 22,000 people died.  Finally the French abandoned their efforts.

Study Needed

At this point, the U.S. medical establishment decided to put some heft behind the need to better understand yellow fever. Army doctors heard Finlay’s theory of the mosquito as vector, but they wanted a doctor or scientist of their own to study the matter.

In 1900, the U.S. Army asked Major Walter Reed (1851-1902) to head a board to study the issue. Reed included assistant surgeons James Carroll, Jesse W.Lazear, and Aristides Agramonte. Reed and James Carroll traveled to Cuba to meet up with doctors Agramonte and Lazear who were already there.

Initially, Reed’s board discounted Finlay’s theory and focused on trying to identify the orgaanism that caused the disease. But they were still without answers. Finally, the doctors turned to Finlay’s research. By this time he had almost 30 years of scientific information.

While Reed was back in Washington on official business, Lazear began mosquito experiments on human volunteers, but Lazear became ill with yellow feer and died. It was believed by those present that he experimented on himself. On Dr. Reed’s return, he went through all of Lazear’s materials and continued the trials with human volunteers.

Dr. Walter Reed is often given credit for this initial break-through, but Dr. Reed was always first to say that they could not have accomplish what they did if it hadn’t been for Carlos Finlay’s work.

The next task was to apply this theory and reduce the mosquito population to halt spread of the disease. This was quickly accomplished in Havana by Army physician William Crawford Gorgas.

The United States Takes Over

When the United States took over the Panama project (1901-1902), they were well aware that 22,000 people died working on the canal in the 1880s, and that 12,000 more people died while working through the same terrain building the Panama Railway (1850s). But now the United States had knowledge on their side.

The Walter Reed Board confirmed what Dr. Finlay had long been telling everyone. Reduce the mosquito population to cut the incident rate of disease.

The Americans now knew that additional preparation and planning were necessary to finish the canal.  U.S. Army physician Dr. William Gorgas (1854-1920) was brought in to implement a sanitation program so that the area would be habitable for humans. A full-scale effort was made to eliminate as many mosquito breeding locations as possible.

Reducing Swamps and Wetlands

Swamps and wetlands around the Canal Zone were filled in, and Gorgas divided Panama into multiple districts so that inspectors could check regularly for stagnant water. In addition, he ordered that sleeping quarters be built with screens so that the workers were protected during the night when the mosquito population is most active.

He also experimented with fumigating buildings where people with yellow fever had been housed. Pans of sulfur or pyrethrum were placed in areas where yellow fever had taken root and the powder in the pans was set on fire. The smoke proved effective at reducing the mosquito population within buildings.

The final measure implemented under Dr. Gorgas involved quarantine of an individual if someone did become sick.  The patient was transported to screened structures that prevented future mosquito bites so that the disease could not be spread from an infected individual.

Finlay’s knowledge, Reed’s successful trials, and Gorgas’s work made the building of the Panama Canal possible. This was to change the course of American transport and greatly speed access to the West.

Finlay Finally Recognized

Carlos Finlay was viewed as a hero in Cuba, but recognition elsewhere came later—fortunately still within his lifetime.  Finlay was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Physiology, though he never was awarded it. However in 1908 he received the Legion of Honour from France.

There is a memorial to him in Havana and a statue of him in Panama City near the canal, the canal he made possible.

But best of all was certainly the statement made by General Leonard Wood, the U.S. military governor of Cuba from 1898 to 1902: “The confirmation of Dr. Finlay’s doctrine is the greatest step forward made in medical science since Jenner’s discovery of the vaccination.”

Finlay concluded his career as the Chief Sanitary Officer of Cuba, a position he held for eight years before retiring in 1909.

****A special thank you to Army physician John R. Pierce, M.D., who took the time to point out some issues in my original article about Finlay and then didn’t give up on me! Thank you, John.

To read about a young American girl and her family who traveled across the Isthmus of Panama before there was a canal and before the railroad was finished, click on Traveling West in 1854.

Corporal Joseph H. De Castro, 20, distinguished himself at Gettysburg during Pickett’s Charge. He was the first Latino to earn the country’s highest military decoration for valor in combat, the Medal of Honor. De Castro was a member of Company I, 19^th Massachusetts Infantry.

Early Life

Joseph De Castro was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1844. By age 18, he worked as a waiter helping his family. In July of 1861 he heard the military was asking men to enlist, so he signed up to be part of the all-volunteer 19^th Massachusetts Infantry. The regiment trained at Camp Schouler in Lynnfield, Massachusetts under Colonel Edward W. Hinks.

On August 28, 1861, the unit was ordered to Washington and assigned to picket duty along the Potomac River. Six months later, the 19th joined the Army of the Potomac in time for the Union movement toward the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, known as the Peninsula Campaign. The unit took part in the Seven Days Battles for Richmond and lost 145 men on Day Six at the Battle of Glendale. 

At Antietam, the 19th suffered heavy losses in the West Woods, and their commander, Colonel Hinks was badly wounded.

The regiment continued on to fight at Fredericksburg. In the assault on Marye’s Heights, the 19^th Massachusetts sustained heavy losses. Eight of the color bearers were killed or badly wounded. This is likely the point at which Private Joseph De Castro was promoted to be a flag bearer.

Color Bearer

Serving as color bearer was both prestigious and dangerous. The color bearers carried no weapons, and the flags the men carried provided the pace and the direction for their regiment. The din of a battle meant that no drumming or bugle call could be heard by the soldiers, so the flag gave the men guidance as to where their unit was going and how quickly. 

But the flag also placed a mark on the color bearer—these men were highly visible to the enemy. The color bearers knew the enormity of their charge. Dropping or losing the flag was a disgrace, so they did all they could to hold on to their colors throughout the battle. 

New Commander

With the loss of Colonel Hinks, the 19th Massachusetts Infantry was put under the command of Colonel Arthur Devereux in early 1863. Devereaux was Harvard-educated and a former business partner of Elmer Ellsworth. Ellsworth was the first Union martyr of the War, but he is also well-remembered for his Zouave marching unit and his love of precision drilling. Devereaux brought with him to the 19^th the disciplinary attitude he practiced with Ellsworth.

  In May of 1863, the 19^th joined the Army of the Potomac to march North. Though they didn’t know it at the time, they were on what would become a 150-mile march to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. One Union general observed how well ordered the 19^th were under Devereaux. After two very hard weeks of marching, they reached Uniontown, Maryland. They stopped to rest and await further orders.

Tension Builds Near Gettysburg

In the meantime, Confederate soldiers in Cashtown, Pennsylvania, spotted Union troops arriving in Gettysburg on June 30. Confederate General A.P. Hill was not too concerned as he believed there were not many Union soldiers nearby, but on July 1, he sent men on reconnaissance to be sure.

Union cavalry officer John Buford feared this would occur. He needed a way to slow the Confederate forces while more of the Union Army arrived. Though he had a relatively small number of soldiers at that time, Buford placed his men in defensive positions on three ridges west of town in a show of strength.

Skirmishes began at 7:30 a.m. on July 1. The Union commanders sent word to regiments in the area to get to Gettysburg quickly. Devereaux started out with the 19^th Massachusetts at 4 a.m. The men still had 20 miles to march, arriving in Gettysburg about 9 pm that evening.  They were dismayed to be met by wounded and discouraged men going the other way in retreat. It had been a bad day for the Union, and the 19^th Massachusetts must have feared what awaited them.

Day Two

On the second day of battle, the 19th Massachusetts regiment held its position along Cemetery Ridge near a soon to be famous clump of trees. The men encountered limited fighting that day but they had a clear view of the horror in nearby, blood-soaked ground around a peach orchard. Union General Sickles moved his men out of his position on Cemetery Ridge without permission. Their presence in the Peach Orchard was a massive mistake, and the Union suffered badly.

Devereaux—commanding both the 19^th Massachusetts and the 42nd New York at this time—received orders to move positions to support the Third Corps fighting in the Peach Orchard.

Devereaux saw the disaster awaiting them, but he wasn’t a man to ignore an order. He maneuvered his men to a knoll between Cemetery Ridge and Emmitsburg Road and waited while more Union men retreated. 

When the way was clear for his men, Devereaux ordered one volley from the New York unit followed by another from 19^th Massachusetts. Soldiers from the 1^st Minnesota provided more firepower. Devereaux followed orders without sacrificing his men.

Finally the Confederate men rested.

Night Before Day 3

That night Devereaux’s men remained in position. They did their best to scrounge for food and sleep as they could, all the while fearing what the next day would hold.

By this time, General Lee was calculating his next step in what became known as Pickett’s Charge. He planned to launch a thunderous volley of artillery on the Union men along Cemetery Ridge early in the day. Lee still held the edge on numbers, so planned an all-out assault by his men on the Union men who remained.

July 3

On the morning of July 3, the Confederate artillery was having difficulty. The barrage did not start until after 1 p.m. This delayed Lee’s plan for the assault. By the time the Confederates began crossing the field for their attack, the temperature was 87 degrees and humid. Each step was a struggle.

From the Union viewpoint, the men did their best to withstand the artillery fire. Then they saw the next plan…the Confederates started across the undulating field, calling and firing. Many of the Confederates were shot as they ran, but some reached the low stone wall and clambered over it. Those who ventured that far engaged in bayonet- and hand-to-hand combat with the Union soldiers.

Union General Hancock rode behind his troops, encouraging them all: “Now, men, forward! Now’s your chance! Go at them!”

De Castro Shines

During this time, Corporal De Castro was out in front of the regiment carrying the Massachusetts state colors. When a Virginia color bearer neared, De Castro met him face-to-face and used his own flag to attack. In hand-to-hand combat, he victoriously wrested the flag away from the Confederate color bearer. Now carrying both flags, he turned to find his nearest general.

General Alexander S. Webb described what happened next: “At the instant a man broke through my line and thrust a rebel battle flag into my hands. He never said a word and darted back. It was Corporal Joseph H. De Castro, one of my color bearers. He knocked down a color bearer in the enemy’s line with the staff of the Massachusetts state colors, seized the falling flag, and dashed it to me.”

De Castro Continues in the War

DeCastro then went right back into the fighting at Gettysburg, returning to his position as regimental flag bearer.

Despite the fact that the Union men were greatly outnumbered by the Confederates, the misguided Confederate plan of storming through the center of the Union line proved disastrous for the Confederacy. They lost roughly half of the 12,000 men in the attack. The Union suffered far fewer casualties.

General Robert E. Lee began a long slow retreat, some of it in pouring rain. Lee’s men would never come back to Pennsylvania in force.

Medal of Honor

De Castro was one of seven men from the 19^th Massachusetts Infantry to be awarded the Medal of Honor for their valorous fighting at Gettysburg.

19th Massachusetts Continues

DeCastro continued on with the 19^th Massachusetts regiment. When his tour of duty was up, he re-enlisted on December 20, 1863.

During the autumn of 1863, the 19^th Massachusetts went on to see action at Bristoe Station, Robertson’s Tavern and the Wilderness.

The following spring they were in action at the Bloody Angle, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. In June of 1864 near Petersburg, the 19^th lost all but 40 of its officers and men in the fighting along Jerusalem Plank Road. In July they went on to Deep Bottom and Reams’ Station, only to be brought back to Petersburg for more fighting.

War Concludes

In April of 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered thereby bringing the Civil War to a close. At that time, the 19^th Massachusetts marched back to Washington City. On June 30, the men mustered out. Much of the regiment then marched on to Massachusetts. At Readville, they were officially paid and discharged.

Joseph H. De Castro served through the entire length of the war. He had been promoted to be a Sergeant of Company I, 19^th Massachusetts.

De Castro After War

Joseph De Castro likely enjoyed some time in the Boston area with friends and family, but he clearly missed the military life. In 1870, he enlisted with the 6^th U.S. Cavalry, Regular Army. They were primarily assigned to the West. After four years of service with the cavalry unit, he returned East. 

De Castro married, and in 1882, he and his wife moved to New York City where he worked for an unspecified barge company.

He continued the military tradition as an active member of the Phil Kearny Post in New York City. De Castro also enjoyed attending Grand Army of the Republic reunions to help keep the memory of the war alive for the next generation.

On May 8, 1892, he died at home at 244 W. 22^nd Street. His funeral was held at the 18^th Street Methodist Church, and he was buried at Fairmount Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey. His grave is marked with a U.S. Medal of Honor bronze marker.

And for more information on Latinos during the Civil War, visit the American Battlefield Trust website: Hispanic Americans in the Civil War.

To read more about the Civil War, read about The Signal Corps and the importance of veterinary medicine during this time.

The Bracero Program was a guest worker program begun in a partnership between the United States and Mexico on August 4, 1942. It was a vital part of the development of the agricultural industry in the United States during a time when workers were hard to find.

Unfortunately, the workers were often exploited. Wages were low and some employers provided substandard housing and not enough to eat. Despite this, some braceros were grateful for the opportunity to work in America, as their situation in Mexico was grim.

Both Countries Needed It

In Mexico, agriculture was an important industry. The rich soil and good weather led to the growth of large farms where they grew squash, beans, tomatoes, cotton, vanilla, avocados, and cacao. But as big farms began to replace family farms in the early 1900s, political agitation in Mexico grew.

By 1910 a full-scale political revolution was underway. The revolt began as a rebellion against long-time president Porfirio Diaz. Though he led the country toward industrialization, farmers and laborers were left behind. He was removed from office in 1911, but it took almost ten years for the unrest to end. The Mexican government used military power to quell citizen uprisings, and from 1910-20, some two million Mexicans died.

Even as a new government settled in with the approval of the Mexican Constitution in 1917, the Mexican government still failed to put in place a method for helping low-wage laborers or agricultural workers make a living. Many citizens began to leave Mexico for the United States with the hope of finding work.

In the United States

As all this was happening, the United States faced a new unexpected crisis. By the 1940s, President Roosevelt committed the U.S. to serve as an “arsenal of democracy” for the Allies who were being attacked by Germany. Companies geared up to increase production of defense materials for Europe. Then the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 led to the United States’ declaration of war.

The defense industry called for more workers, yet the pool of workers was becoming smaller as large numbers of young men enlisted.

As a result, more and more workers were needed. Jobs opened up for ethnic groups and women. The ship-building industry in California brought thousands of African Americans from the South for skilled work that would never have previously been available to them.  Women, too, were hired in the aviation and automobile industries doing jobs in factories and plants.

Farm Workers Needed

Feeding people throughout the U.S. and overseas was a necessity, but farm workers were taking other jobs and also enlisting. Women often stepped up to run farms and ranches for their families, and the government backed Victory Gardens in urban areas to try to reduce the production needs placed on the farms. But ultimately migrant workers were badly needed.

Particularly in the less populous sections of the Southwest, including California and the San Joaquin Valley, workers were needed on the railroad as well.

Creation of the Bracero Program

In 1942, the governments of the United States and Mexico created the Bracero Program as a result of each country’s needs.

On their side, Mexico regulated the number of workers leaving each section of the country, so that no area would be too low on farm workers. But corrupt practices began here. In some areas, Mexican government officials would only give those who paid bribes permission to enter the program.

In the United States, the program operated through a coordinated effort of the State Department, the Labor Department, and Department of the Immigration and Naturalization Services.  The U.S. Farm Bureau interfaced with the American farm associations for placing the workers.

Offices were established along the border towns—Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas, to recruit and place the workers who arrived.

Guest Workers Arrive

Brought in as “guest workers,” the braceros (meaning those who “labor with their arms”) were given contracts with expiration dates. The contracts tended to be from 1-6 months and were issued in English.  Most men were not fully aware of what it stated about their conditions of employment.

When they arrived in the United States, the men were inspected and interviewed. Most centers also fumigated the newcomers, generally using DDT, a pesticide that is now used very sparingly because of its dangers.

Not all the men sent to the U.S. from Mexico were accepted, but neither government took responsibility for helping the men return home.

Employers Held the Power

While some employers ran decent operations, corrupt practices were also plentiful. Contracts were often ignored by U.S. employers. Workers were promised clean living conditions, food, and decent pay, but it often didn’t happen. Most contracts also specified that 10 percent of money due each man would be deposited in a savings account. The money would be available to them when they returned home.  There are still lawsuits pending concerning the fact that money often wasn’t paid and may not actually have been set aside.

Braceros were permitted to return home for family emergencies only with written permission of their American employer, and all contracts had an expiration date. When their date came, they were to turn in their permits and return home. Many of those who returned home then re-applied. The men found that what little they earned was more than what was available at home. They valued being able to set aside money for tools and equipment that would help their families in Mexico.

Farm Workers Brought Value

While much of the work they did involved weeding and picking everything from cucumbers and tomatoes to cotton, the farm workers of Mexico had experience and made helpful contributions to those who employed them.

Farmers in Mexico found that that if they planted corn, beans, and squash together, all three crops did better. (The beans replace the nitrogen in the soil that is depleted by growing corn.) This was an important development in agriculture progress of the day, and family farms in Mexico practiced this planting system as well.

What Happened to the Program?

By the 1960s, Mexican immigrants were arriving in the U.S. with and without permits. They were also finding less work was available for them as American farmers turned to different forms of mechanization for some of the agricultural work. Cotton was a prime example. Cotton-picking had always been an extremely labor-intensive crop to harvest, and the by 1960s, more farms were using the mechanical cotton harvester.

By 1964, the U.S. Department of Labor was ready to end the program. The braceros who were still in the United States were sent back to Mexico, but they faced difficulties in finding work there.  However, border ranches and farms in the U.S. continued to employ them—it was cheap, available labor.

Remembering the Braceros

Recently, there has been an effort to recognize the 4.5 million Mexican nationals who participated in the Bracero Program. In several locations, monuments have been erected to recognize the hard work done by the migrant workers.

In Los Angeles near where many of these workers were based, a statue was erected in a plaza downtown. Sculptor Dan Medina interviewed dozens of braceros as he planned out the monument. The farm tool held by the depicted bracero is an “el cortito.” This is a short-handled hoe that was the primary tool of these workers.  The only way to use this small hoe is when bending over or working on one’s hands and knees—clearly back-breaking work.

Artist Dan Medina was quoted in The Los Angeles Times after the unveiling of the monument: “The immigrant has been demonized. .. If you look at history through the scope of honesty, we wouldn’t be here without their contributions.”

While many braceros eventually returned to the United States, brought families and gained citizenship, it was not without great hardship.

After the Program

Some in this country feel that the Bracero Program kept wage growth low and living conditions sub-standard because the farms could find the labor they needed without improving work conditions.

But the civil rights unrest of the early 1960s and the official close of the Bracero Program changed the balance of power. Activists began to create grassroot organizations to stand up for the workers, and over time, it made a difference.

In 1959 Dolores Heurta organized the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA).  Three years later, Cesar Chavez started the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).  Both organizations sent representatives from farm-to-farm to meet with workers of many nationalities—Filipino, Chicanos, Anglos, and black workers.  Most of the workers they met with could not afford to lose their employment. Huerta, Chavez, and other leaders including Larry Itliong, and Gilbert Padilla convinced them that change had to happen.

Notable Success

By 1965, several small strikes were underway, and the movement grew. Chavez also pushed for a nationwide boycott of grapes, and the public responded. All these efforts convinced the owners that they had to address the issue.

Employers started with an offer of a wage increase– to $1.25 an hour.  But the organizations had seen small sums offered before, and they urged the workers to hold out for full unionization. By 1970, the combined organizations—now called the United Farm Workers–had 50,000 dues-paying members, the most ever represented by an agricultural union in California.

The Need Continues

While the United Farmworkers of America made great strides, backsliding is constant. It is an ongoing challenge to protect new generations of workers. Today the Farmworker Justice organization works on behalf of these laborers, In late 2019, the House of Representatives passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019, HR 5038.

This bill provides a path to lawful permanent residency for undocumented farm workers and their family members. Farmworker Justice representatives point out that with the fear of deportation, the workforce fluctuates constantly, and it is hard to assure farmers of the steady quality of work. If workers feel their work situation is stable, they can be trained to a higher level.  This helps assure greater food safety and security to the benefit of employers, workers, and consumers.

The bill awaits approval by the Senate.

***

Luisa Moreno was another who activist who worked for labor rights.

Marcelino Serna was still a Mexican citizen when he fought for the United States in World War I. He was smart at battlefield tactics, felt loyal to his fellow soldiers, and his efforts for the U.S. saved countless American lives.

After the war he returned to live in Texas, and in 1924, he fulfilled his dream of becoming a United States citizen.

Serna Early Life

Marcelino Serna was not yet 15 years old when he left the mining camp where his family lived near Chihuahua, Mexico. He was unable to find work there, so he moved to Mendez and then Reynosa, Mexico, where he boarded a very primitive ferry service for Hidalgo, Texas. He applied for and received an “alien border crossing permit,” so his arrival was documented by the Department of Commerce (September 18, 1911).

From Hidalgo, he moved northwest to El Paso, Texas. There he got a job on the maintenance crew for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. But the railroad did not pay their maintenance people very well, so when Serna heard about better-paying jobs on sugar beet farms near Denver, Colorado, he moved north to work as part of an agricultural crew.

In 1917, the federal authorities rounded up men everywhere, looking for those who could be drafted for World War I. Serna was working with other farm laborers in Colorado when he was stopped. The authorities expected to hold the men until they could investigate their draft status. But Serna knew his status. He was a Mexican citizen who dreamed of becoming an American. He spoke up, saying he would voluntarily enlist.

Draftees Sent to Kansas for Training

Serna and the others who were recruited near Denver were sent to Camp Funston in Kansas (part of Fort Riley). They went through three weeks of training before being sent overseas as privates in Company B, 355^th Infantry, 89^th Division.

There were many other Mexican immigrants who helped fight World War I. (They were known as the Quiet Ones.) Serna was one of 67 soldiers in the unit whose primary language was Spanish. In the 1960s, he was interviewed by a reporter from The El Paso Times (June 29, 1962). Serna explained that only one of the men in the unit was bilingual: “He was pretty busy keeping us all informed of what was going on.”

Serna Offered Option

When Marcelino Serna’s paperwork caught up with him in France, an officer asked him to report in. He was told that because he wasn’t an American citizen, they would provide him with orders to return to Mexico—he didn’t have to fight. Serna turned the offer down; he bonded with the other soldiers in his unit, and he was committed to fighting for the country he dreamed of calling home.

Battles to Come

His unit traveled to the eastern border of France, and one of their first battles took place in the village of Lucey. From there, they went north to Saint-Mihiel and fought their way east to Euvezin. Next, they journeyed northwest for the fateful and extended Meuse-Argonne offensive (September 26-November 11, 1918).

Serna’s bravery and intelligence appeared early in this assignment. At Saint-Mihiel, heavy machine gun fire peppered the unit, killing twelve Americans. The commander needed to know what awaited them, and Serna volunteered to scout forward and report back.

He left the other men, running ten feet or so and going down as the German shooter tried to pinpoint him. Slowly, he again rose up, ran a bit and then took cover, making his way in this manner until he was very near the German machine gun nest. During his approach, two bullets dented his helmet but neither penetrated.

When he was close enough, Serna lobbed four grenades into the protected area from which the Germans fired. The blast killed six Germans, and Serna moved in and captured the remaining eight soldiers.

Marcelino Serna: A Hero Again

A similar maneuver occurred when they reached the Meuse-Argonne. A German sniper was calmly and systematically picking off American soldiers. Serna again volunteered to scout the area on his own. He was a crack shot with his Enfield rifle, and when he saw that the sniper was part of a big group of soldiers, he thought fast.

He realized if he could move quickly, shooting and tossing grenades from different locations, he might trick them into thinking he was one of many. The ruse worked. Serna killed 26 enemy soldiers during this battle. By this time, the Germans were convinced they were under attack by a much larger force. After several hours, they surrendered, and Serna escorted 24 German soldiers back to the Allied lines.

As he marched the captives back, he came upon Americans sent in to back him up. Several wanted to execute the prisoners right there. Serna rejected their offer and said that doing so would violate the principles of war.

Luck Gives Out

With only four days until when the Armistice was signed, the fighting was still heavy. Serna was caught in sniper fire, and both legs were badly injured.

It was too dangerous for other men to move forward to help him, so for a time, Serna lay there as if he were dead. When the situation quieted somewhat, and he had gained some strength, he used his Enfield rifle as a crutch and worked his way to safe territory. Medics arranged for him to be transported to an army hospital in France.

Honors

Though many honors were to follow, one has to believe that the most exciting one was the medal he was given directly by General John J. Pershing, the commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe. Pershing stopped in to greet the wounded and to award medals to those who were deserving. The highest American combat medal, the Distinguished Service Cross award, was pinned on Serna’s shirt by Pershing himself.

Later he was presented with two French Croix de Guerre with palms awards. The first was given to him personally by the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He also received a French Médaille Militaire and an Italian Croce al Merito di Guerra a well as a French Commemorative Medal, a French St. Mihiel Medal, and a French Verdun Medal. This made him one of the most highly decorated soldiers in Texas history.

After the War

When he recovered from his wounds and was discharged from the military (May 1919), he returned to El Paso and got a job at a local slaughter house, the Payton Packing Company. When a position opened in the quartermaster department at Fort Bliss, he took it.

In 1922, he married Simona Jiménez, and in 1924, he qualified to be a U.S. citizen. Over the years, he worked as a city truck driver, a civil service employee at Fort Bliss. His final job, the one from which he retired (1961), was as a plumber at William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

He and his wife had six children, but only two survived to adulthood.

Robber Takes Serna Medals

In the 1920s, Serna’s home was robbed, and among the items taken were all of his medals. Devastated, Serna did not know what to do.

His friend Dr. Cleofas Calleras wrote to the War Department and explained what happened.  Duplicate medals were issued. Calleras also realized that Serna never received a Purple Heart for the wounds sustained at Meuse-Argonne. Shortly after hearing from Calleras again, the War Department sent a Purple Heart as well as the American Victory medal with three campaign bars. These additional medals were presented to him at a special meeting of his V.F.W. Post—Marco Armijo No. 2753.

His Retirement

Serna helped form the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #2753 in El Paso, and he remained active throughout his life. If there was a Veteran’s Parade in town, Serna was very likely to be a part of it.

He also loved raising roses and spent many happy hours gardening and caring for his plants. Marcelino Serna was a devoted parishioner of Saint Ignatius Catholic Church.

When he died Feb 1992, he was buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery with full military honors.

The Wish to Add to His Honors

In the last ten years, community members have continued to push for Serna to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously.

But in the meantime, something else meaningful happened.  Friends and relatives and Serna’s Congressman took matters into their own hands. Will Hurd, U.S. Representative for the 23^rd Congressional District of Texas in Washington, put forward a bill that renamed the Tornillo Port of Entry in honor of Marcelino Serna. (Tornillo is a part of El Paso, Texas, and is located on the Rio Grande River.)

As Hurd wrote prior to the ceremony in 2016: “The Tornillo-Marcelino Serna Port of Entry will not only honor this extraordinary man’s service to our nation, it will serve as a reminder of the countless Mexican-American immigrants that have fought valiantly to keep our nation safe. Their contributions will not be ignored or forgotten.”

A ceremony was held on September 29, 2016, in Tornillo, Texas.

***

To read about another Mexican American war hero, read about Silvestre S. Herrera.

During World War II, the country needed citizen support at home and abroad for all that needed to be done to fight a war. Tucson, Arizona, was just one of a multitude of communities that stepped forward to do their part.

Men enlisted in major numbers, leaving many jobs unfilled. This paved the way for women to enter into the workforce in great numbers. Factories needed help building everything from bombs to airplanes, trucks and automobiles.

In Tucson, the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation had jobs open for all who could be trained to work on bombers. The Vultee plant in Tucson was in charge of modification of the airplanes—some bombers required changes for flying in different climates; all bombers needed their offense and defense systems strengthened and brought up to date.

Men left farming jobs open, too. Women stepped in to keep up with growing everything from fruits, vegetables, and grains to cotton. Cotton was vital for making uniforms, tents, and parachutes. In addition to extra people working in at the farms, volunteers from the surrounding area arrived to pick the cotton in the fields.

Community Life Changes

Communities also suffered from the changes. The government stressed conservation of food, encouraged more home gardening, and asked that citizens collect and return to the government scrap metal, nylon, and fats and grease. (Fats and grease could be converted into glycerin for making explosives.)

As women took jobs, other women opened day care centers for their children. Local groups all over the country also sold war bonds to raise money for the cause.

It was a worrisome time. Loved ones were leaving for destinations unknown, with families fearing they might not come back. The war no longer seemed faraway. Those at home knew that keeping up morale would help townspeople as well as those serving overseas.

Arizonans Pitched In

In the 1940s, Arizona’s population was about 30 percent Hispanic. Despite many of them already being U.S. citizens, these families faced discrimination in school and in some public places. (See Mendez v. Westminster.)  But the men were being drafted, and those at home put insults behind them and volunteered to do their part to help the country that was their home.

In Tucson, Arizona, a group calling themselves the Association of Hispanic Mothers and Wives (also called Spanish-American Mothers and Wives) organized in 1944 to support the war effort. Their newsletter, Chatter (saved by the Arizona Historical Society), was created to provide news for those at home about the men and women serving overseas. They also provided information that would have been of interest to the soldiers.

The newsletter was published every second and fourth Sunday. The first issue was on Father’s Day 1944: “We the Spanish-American Mothers and Wives Association, humbly dedicate this, our first issue of CHATTER. To the valiant Fathers who are fighting to preserve our democracy.”

Revenue from the paper was added to a fund to create recreation center for Spanish-American soldiers from Tucson.

News for the Families

The newsletter brought information on the Tucson soldiers overseas, including those due home on furlough. Promotions and recognitions are listed, and so are those “wounded in action” and “missing in action.” From Chatter, it is clear that many women from Tucson also signed up. Under Enlistments, we read of Pvt. Esther Dorame and Victoria Lopez and Angel Flores are all mentioned for signing up for the Women’s Army Corps.

The Robles family of Tucson would have loved this report: “A brother and sister reunion occurred recently in the southwest Pacific area—Pfc. Lucy Robles and Pvt. Salvador Robles of Tucson, after the landing of the first WAC group to be assigned to the sector.” The meeting was arranged by the Red Cross. A third brother was also fighting in the area but could not be present for the get-together.

In the newsletter of June 25, 1944, it was reported that PFC Abraham Mendoza “is now in Iran with the railway shop battalion, Abe sent us a picture of him sitting on a camel—he says he still prefers riding down Myers St. in an old broken down jalopy with a bottle of tequila by his side.”

News for the Soldiers as Well

Whether there was a formal way of sending newsletters to hometown men and women overseas, or whether families themselves sent the newsletters on, the news coverage makes it clear that those serving were among the intended readers.

In one of the early issues there is a special note to Staff Sergeant William Rivera “somewhere in New Guinea:” “Your boy was two years old July 22, and he is quite a young man. Congratulations, and may you soon come back to him.”

There was also encouragement for voting by those overseas. Chatter mentioned that of the 600 military ballots mailed out by the county recorder, 128 had been returned, 90 from the camps in the U.S. and 38 from foreign points. “COME ON KIDS, KEEP ‘EM COMING!”

Town Updates

And of course, everyone wondered about football. Would there be college games in 1944? Chatter reporters contacted the Director of Athletics at the University of Arizona. He verified that for 1944 there were not expected to be any college athletics.

The newsletter covered town news ranging from a fire at the Pekin Café to landscaping improvements around town. They also notified soldiers that when they were home, there would be free swimming for them at a community pool on Monday and Tuesday. Swimming access for “colored” soldiers would be at a different location (a reminder to readers today that it was the Jim Crow era).

Pop Culture from Home

Perhaps to make those stationed overseas feel less homesick, the newsletter concluded with a page or two dedicated to entertainment. Lists of the top hit parade songs for recent weeks as well as a “jokes” section were included in each newsletter. There was light poetry:

“The saddest words of tongue or pen,

Perhaps may be “It might have been,

But sweetest words we know, by heck

Are simply these: ‘Enclosed find check.’”

And this from American actress Benay Venuta: “Hitler thought he was a man of steel but we proved he was just scrap iron.”

D-Day in Tucson

According to Chatter, Tucson took the news of the long-awaited invasion of Normandy “sitting down” and with no display of hysteria or outward excitement. Chatter reported on the happenings. The down town district was deserted as the first news come over the radio, and no whistles or sirens were sounded.

Citizens joined the nation-wide prayer for the fighting men. Most churches held services. Special lunch hour prayers were held at Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Plant and a special bond booth set up sold more than $3000 worth that morning.

People Come Together

In times of national emergency, Americans can generally trust that people of all backgrounds will come together.  The Hispanic Women of Tucson displayed this perfectly during World War II.

If you know of people who lived in Tucson during this era and have information to add, please get in touch: kate@americacomesalive.com

To read about Latina women who took jobs during World War II, click here.