The Latino contribution to armed forces

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Last Saturday in his weekly Culture Mix column, Times staff writer Agustin Gurza informed readers that documentary film maker Ken Burns had agreed to revise his upcoming PBS series on World War II to include the contributions of Latinos who served in the U.S. armed forces.

Burns had come under fire from Latino advocates who were upset that the seven-part documentary ‘The War,’ scheduled to air in September, neglected the contributions of some 500,000 Latino men and women who served Uncle Sam in an hour of need.

Among others, Gurza spoke with Otto Santa Ana, an associate professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at UCLA, ‘whose father and five uncles served in WWII,’ Gurza wrote. Now Jennifer Vo, identified as a library aide for the Los Angeles Unified School District, has joined the discussion in a commentary co-written with John P. Schmal that’s posted on the local website latinola.com.

In her interesting, highly detailed piece (which apparently was written before Burns decided to shoot new material for his series), Vo discusses the many contributions of Latinos to the U.S. military, from the Expedition of 1781 that established the Pueblo of Los Angeles to the Korean War and beyond.

‘From my earliest memories, my family has always expressed its pride in its military tradition of protecting American soil,’ writes Vo, two of whose family members were killed in action in World War II.

Posted by Reed Johnson in Mexico City