No one knows how many American Latinos fought in World War II, but estimates range from 250,000 to 500,000. Yet they are virtually absent from the history books. “Latino Stories of World War II” is an hour long documentary film that fills in some of this missing history.
In the film, four Latino veterans tell their stories in their own words. They are:
Richard Candelaria
William Carrillo, an Eighth Air Force bomber pilot shot down over Berlin after forty five missions. Interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo, Carrillo subsequently turned down an offer to join the Luftwaffe (German Air Force).
Evelio Grillo, a Cuban American from Florida who was placed in a segregated Army unit and sent to build the Ledo Road in India. The son of immigrants and a graduate of Xavier University, Grillo describes the all-black Army unit commanded by white officers as resembling a “slave labor battalion.”
Guy Gabaldon, a Marine from East Los Angeles who earned the nickname “The Pied Piper of Saipan” by capturing hundreds of Japanese prisoners single-handedly. After the war, Gabaldon appeared on the TV show “This Is Your Life,” and was the subject of the 1960 Hollywood movie “Hell to Eternity”---which neglected to mention that he was a Latino!
Richard Candelaria, born in El Paso, who became a fighter “ace” by shooting down six German fighter planes. Shot down while strafing a German airfield, he was forced to kill two German soldiers while he attempted to reach the Allied lines. Eventually captured, he and several fellow prisoners staged a daring escape.
“Latino Stories of World War II” was developed in cooperation with the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project (University of Texas), and funded by the University of California MEXUS research institute.
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