Vietnam veterans push for inclusion in Ken Burns documentary
CUAUHTEMOC BELTRAN PHOTO
Vietnam veteran Edward Castillo-Rubio is among the local Vietnam
veterans urging documentary filmmaker Ken Burns to include the
participation of Hispanics in Burns’ upcoming film about the Vietnam
War, to be shown in seven parts on PBS.
By JONATHAN ATHENS, Staff Writer
Monday, August 20, 2007 10:48 PM PDT
Barely two days after returning home to
Holtville from an 11-month tour of duty in Vietnam, Ed Castillo found
himself standing in an unemployment line.
Just 36 hours earlier,
Castillo was in a combat zone. Though he was still reeling from
post-combat trauma, Castillo said all he wanted at the time was a
decent job, but the only work the unemployment office offered was a
field job thinning lettuce, the kind of work he was doing before
shipping off to fight communism in Southeast Asia.
“Don’t you
think I should be able to get a regular job other than working in the
fields?” said Castillo, recalling his remark to the employment
counselor.
The counselor, as Castillo tells it, gave him this choice — take the job or lose your unemployment benefits.
Castillo made a choice — though he lost his benefits, he maintained his self-respect and found a new mission.
“I made it my special duty to see to it that no other veteran looking for a job would be treated like that,” he said.
Now
retired from working as an employment counselor, the 62-year-old
Castillo is commander of the Vietnam Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9305
of Imperial County.
The memory of having been so disrespected
and disregarded when he returned from the Vietnam War in January 1967
have been rekindled in the form of a soon to be broadcast documentary
made by acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns.
Castillo has joined the
ranks of more than 60 organizations and individuals protesting the lack
of representation of Hispanic veterans in the Burns documentary “The
War,” slated to be broadcast on the Public Broadcasting System in
September.
“I
don’t think he’s a racist. I don’t think he’s aware of a few things. …
He didn’t dig farther to realize that Latinos were an integral part of
fighting for this country,” Castillo said.
A publicist for Burns
and his New Hampshire-based film company could not be reached for
comment. A receptionist for Burns’ film company, Florentine Films, said
all representatives were “booked solid” in meetings early Monday
afternoon and would not be available to comment by press time hours
later that day.
Facing pressure from critics, Burns in May met
with two Latino groups and allegedly said he would include interviews
with some Latino veterans in his soon to be broadcast documentary,
according to a news release from Defend the Honor, the lead
organization in the protest.
In the July 1 edition of USA
Weekend, Burns wrote of his documentary, “We interviewed more than 500
people. Veterans spoke of leaving home for the first time and arriving
on the front line of battle. Of facing and somehow beating death. Many
broke down in the middle of our conversation. They would tell their
stories, and it was clearly for the first time — a catharsis they had
denied themselves.”
The series includes 40 of those interviews, Burns wrote.
Critics
do not think Burns went far enough to include the experiences of
Hispanic soldiers, sailors and Marines in his exhaustive seven-part
documentary.
Castillo said the contribution Hispanic-Americans
made during World War II was significant even though Hispanics
accounted for barely 1 percent of the general population at the time.
He pointed to the number of Hispanics who earned the highest military distinction, the Medal of Honor.
Of
the 3,400 Medal of Honor recipients since 1861 when the medal was
introduced, 39 are Hispanic or Latinos, according to the U.S. Army’s
Web site.
Of the 464 Medal of Honor recipients in World War II,
12 were Hispanic, according to the American GI Forum, a Hispanic
veterans’ advocacy group.
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