Puerto Ricans have fought within the U.S. army for the previous two centuries, however don’t all the time garner the identical recognition as different American residents who did.
Those who gathered at Puerto Rican Veterans Memorial Plaza within the South End addressed that difficult historical past this Memorial Day, whereas additionally paying tribute to the fallen Puerto Rican troopers who served within the U.S. Armed Forces.
“It is no secret to anyone that these soldiers from the 65th Infantry Regiment made significant contributions to the history of the United States,” stated Roberto Santiago, Boston’s commissioner of veterans providers, standing alongside the nation’s first-ever memorial to Puerto Rican veterans on Monday.
Also often known as the Borinqueneers, the all-Puerto Rican army regiment fought for the United States in each world wars, however made its most pivotal contributions within the Korean War, the place the sixty fifth was deployed for the primary time as front-line troops.
In Korea, the sixty fifth regiment was tasked with exterminating enemy detachments and waging guerilla warfare. These troops withstood the advance of the Chinese military lengthy sufficient for allied forces to take up positions, stated Santiago, the town’s first-ever Puerto Rican veterans providers commissioner.
“We know that Puerto Ricans not only fought against foreign enemies in war, but they also faced discrimination, often from those that they served with,” Santiago stated.
This complicated historical past is due partly to Puerto Rico’s continued designation as a U.S. territory, and the previous segregation of the U.S. army. Puerto Rican troops served in segregated army models till 1948, when this follow was formally outlawed within the U.S. Armed Forces.
Perhaps, consequently, it’s been an uphill battle for these searching for widespread recognition for Puerto Ricans who fought and died in battle for the United States.
“We are part of this country, regardless of what other people may think,” stated Boston Police Deputy Superintendent Luis Cruz, who’s Puerto Rican. “We are U.S. citizens and we shed blood. We’ve lost soldiers for this country.”
In Boston, it took 14 years of advocacy by the Puerto Rican neighborhood, notably from Vietnam War veterans Antonio Molina and Jaime Rodriguez, to create the memorial that now stands within the South End.
“This iconic landmark began in 1999 with a plaque for the first 65th Infantry Regiment, the ones that made so many sacrifices during the Korean War,” stated Molina, board president for the Puerto Rican Veterans Monument Square Association, which hosted the Memorial Day occasion.
And it was simply two years in the past, in 2021, that Congress proclaimed April 13 as a nationwide vacation for Borinqueneers Day. It’s one of the vital essential holidays for Puerto Ricans, Santiago stated.
Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, CEO of the South End nonprofit Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, stated her father served within the sixty fifth U.S. Army Infantry Regiment throughout the Korean War, a unit that she stated has turn into “an icon for Puerto Ricans.”
She spoke of how her father, who died two months in the past at age 92, cherished warfare films and would typically urge her to observe them, regardless of her distaste for the movies.
This was essential, Calderón-Rosado recollects her father as saying, “because we needed to learn from history so we wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes,” and “because we needed to honor those who fought for freedom and lost their lives.”
Calderón-Rosado additionally spoke of how her father would write two units of letters throughout his time in Korea, a sanitized model to his mom that may guarantee her every thing was going effectively, and a extra sincere model to his sister.
The latter talked in regards to the difficulties of warfare, “the danger and the fear,” and included the names of those that died, she stated.
“That story always made me think of the difficulties and hardship that our servicemen and women have endured during these conflicts,” Calderón-Rosado stated. “And today, not only do we honor our veterans, but we honor those who never came home and whose names were sadly mentioned in letters like the ones my dad sent to his sister.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”