thedrifter
08-08-07, 01:06 PM
KEN BURNS' 'THE WAR' & MY DAD
By LINDA CHAVEZ
July 18, 2007 -- I GREW up hearing my father's stories of World War II combat in the South Pacific. Once in a while, he'd take out his smooth Purple Heart he kept in a cigar box on his dresser and show me the citation awarded to "Staff Sgt. Rudolph F. Chavez, U.S. Army Corps."
The Public Broadcasting Service and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns are now in the midst of controversy over men like my father. Burns' 14-hour series, "The War," will air in September on PBS stations. Burns hoped to capture not only what happened in Europe and the Pacific during the war but also how it changed America. By focusing on four towns and the soldiers who lived there, Burns humanized the scale of the war. But when word leaked that none of the soldiers included was Hispanic, several advocacy groups cried foul.
Burns has now added three new stories to the series to relate the experience of Hispanic and American-Indian soldiers. I suppose it's a sign of the times: Every group wants its own story told.
Unlike blacks and Japanese, Hispanics served in integrated units in World War II. Fourteen Hispanics earned the Medal of Honor for their bravery during the war, yet many Hispanic soldiers returned home to face discrimination. The refusal of a Texas funeral parlor to allow the use of its chapel for the burial of Pvt. Felix Longoria's remains, which were returned to his family after the war, launched a major civil-rights push by Mexican-Americans.
I wonder what my father, who died 29 years ago last week, would think about the controversy over "The War." He never mentioned any ethnic tension when he talked about the war. I don't ever recall him referring to anyone's ancestry. I imagine he viewed the men he served with not as Irish or Italian or Polish, but as fellow Americans. Would he have watched "The War" through an ethnic prism? I doubt it.
I think he would have seen the stories as his own, even if the soldiers and sailors were named Gray, Phillips, Ciarlo, Satow and Leopold.
Ellie
By LINDA CHAVEZ
July 18, 2007 -- I GREW up hearing my father's stories of World War II combat in the South Pacific. Once in a while, he'd take out his smooth Purple Heart he kept in a cigar box on his dresser and show me the citation awarded to "Staff Sgt. Rudolph F. Chavez, U.S. Army Corps."
The Public Broadcasting Service and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns are now in the midst of controversy over men like my father. Burns' 14-hour series, "The War," will air in September on PBS stations. Burns hoped to capture not only what happened in Europe and the Pacific during the war but also how it changed America. By focusing on four towns and the soldiers who lived there, Burns humanized the scale of the war. But when word leaked that none of the soldiers included was Hispanic, several advocacy groups cried foul.
Burns has now added three new stories to the series to relate the experience of Hispanic and American-Indian soldiers. I suppose it's a sign of the times: Every group wants its own story told.
Unlike blacks and Japanese, Hispanics served in integrated units in World War II. Fourteen Hispanics earned the Medal of Honor for their bravery during the war, yet many Hispanic soldiers returned home to face discrimination. The refusal of a Texas funeral parlor to allow the use of its chapel for the burial of Pvt. Felix Longoria's remains, which were returned to his family after the war, launched a major civil-rights push by Mexican-Americans.
I wonder what my father, who died 29 years ago last week, would think about the controversy over "The War." He never mentioned any ethnic tension when he talked about the war. I don't ever recall him referring to anyone's ancestry. I imagine he viewed the men he served with not as Irish or Italian or Polish, but as fellow Americans. Would he have watched "The War" through an ethnic prism? I doubt it.
I think he would have seen the stories as his own, even if the soldiers and sailors were named Gray, Phillips, Ciarlo, Satow and Leopold.
Ellie