Latinos decry their absence in WWII film

Francisco Alvarado was born in South Texas but deported, with his wife and two children, during the so-called Mexican Repatriations of the 1930s. During World War II, however, he received a draft notice at his old Texas address, which was forwarded to him in Mexico.

Not only did Alvarado answer the call, but he was sent to Normandy and taken prisoner by the Germans. After he returned home, 10 of his 12 children went on to serve in the U.S. military.

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It's hard to imagine a more eye- opening story, especially when the contributions of Mexicans to this country are often drowned out by those favoring mass deportations of undocumented workers.

Yet neither Alvarado's story nor any like it will be an integral part of the long-awaited documentary by Ken Burns about World War II that PBS begins airing at 8 p.m. EDT.

Six years in the making, "The War" is in seven parts, 16 hours in all, and is destined to become the definitive documentary about the defining historical event of the 20th century.

But the original script failed to tell even one story about the role Latinos played in the war.

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a journalism professor at the University of Texas who has been working on the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project, who related Alvarado's story, has been campaigning to get Burns to revise the documentary.

She helped form the "Defend the Honor" campaign, and with other advocacy groups and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, got Burns to acknowledge his omission and agree to include new material. The concessions did not come easy -- both Burns and PBS president Paula Kerger expressed reservations about changing the film, saying it would interfere with his "artistic freedom."

The agreement to include new material was announced on April 17 of this year, when Burns said new material about Latinos would be incorporated "seamlessly" into the documentary. But three weeks later, it was announced that the 28 minutes of material, including references to two Mexican-Americans and one Native American veteran, would be shown within the closing credits.

A recent review of the film in Current, a newspaper about public broadcasting in the U.S., said that the 14-minute segment about two Mexican-American Marines was appended to the first hour of "The War," "after what was clearly in tended as the program-closer." The Mexican-Americans only come into view after Norah Jones sings "American Anthem" and the screen fades to black.

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