Ken Burns' WWII Documentary and Latino protestors

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

I have something to say to the Latino groups protesting across the country and soon-to-be-here.

Shut up. Stop right now. Stop embarrassing us and taking away from real racial issues by creating these untrue ones.

You want people to know more about us in the war. Get the stories out there. Don't degrade their memory by forcing their inclusion into a private documentary likely financed by private monies.

You want to make your own, be my guest. This is pretty damned stupid of a fight to pick.

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/511EXPQ041L._SS500_.jpg

There. Loan out your copies to everybody so they can read and learn on their own. Stop trying to force this unwarranted perception of racism on people when there are other injustices far more deserving of this non-injustice.

Rant over.

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And yes, there are going to be protests in San Antonio.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/19/DDOSS80EM.DTL

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

http://www.defendthehonor.org/

Defend The Honor?

Did Burns say no Latinos served? Did he say they didn't serve with honor as did other minority groups?

No.

Then what honor is there to defend?



THE WAR, a seven-part series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, tells the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four quintessentially American towns. The series explores the most intimate human dimensions of the greatest cataclysm in history — a worldwide catastrophe that touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America — and demonstrates that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.


"Through the personal accounts..."

God, this pisses me off so much.

[1369]

And the most important point of the article.


Burns said on a visit to San Francisco last week that the protests reflected a "huge misunderstanding" of the film's intentions. "We never intended this to be a comprehensive film about the war." Submariners aren't represented, he said. Neither are women who served in the military or Filipino Americans. No Latinos came forward, he said, when the call for interviews went out in four cities.

I think this little factoid negates their whole attention whore claim.

[1369]

http://www.defendthehonor.org/

Defend The Honor?

Did Burns say no Latinos served? Did he say they didn't serve with honor as did other minority groups?

No.

Then what honor is there to defend?



"Through the personal accounts..."

God, this pisses me off so much.

Just wait until you read Carlos Guerra's next diatribe on this.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

And the most imoprtant point of the article.



I think this little factoid negates their whole attention whore claim.

Exactly.

I listened to an interview of Burns on NPR right as these protests started up and his first thoughts were that it wasn't intended to be a complete history of WWII, but of the experiences of random families and communities and expressed through their eyes.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

And why did it take Ken Burns' film to get Latino historians and those seeking to "Defend The Honor" off their ass and document "The Greatest Generation"?

It's no secret that those who fought in the war are nearing death and it just might be nice to get their stories and first-hand accounts on record before they die.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

GO: Sept. 30: Last day to see "A Tale of 500,000 Warriors: The Stories Ken Burns Left Out," works by Sandy Arispe, Carolina G. Flores and Mary Agnes Rodriguez at Los Aura Studios in the Blue Star Complex.


I wish they would have renamed that to "The Stories We Haven't Told You Yet."

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

echo chamber thread

Maybe, but I feel a little better getting that out there.

[T Park]

So let me get this straight.

MR Burns has written a book, correct?

This book is the fantastic mexican americans, that served our wonderfull country in world war 2, and is putting their stories out there.


If I'm right so far, what exactly is to protest?


Protesting the book, IMO is a dishonor to their memory.


God bless ALL those who served. Mexican, black, white, native american, whoever.


The generation that was in the 40s was our greatest generation of people.

Had there not been that whole segregation and no civil rights thing...

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

So let me get this straight.

MR Burns has written a book, correct?

This book is the fantastic mexican americans, that served our wonderfull country in world war 2, and is putting their stories out there.


If I'm right so far, what exactly is to protest?


Protesting the book, IMO is a dishonor to their memory.


God bless ALL those who served. Mexican, black, white, native american, whoever.


The generation that was in the 40s was our greatest generation of people.

Had there not been that whole segregation and no civil rights thing...

http://www.pbs.org/thewar/

[mrsmaalox]

Actually, Ken Burns has written a documentary about WW2 and the so-called Latino community feels that Latinos are not fairly represented. Hence the protests. As a result, Ken Burns has buckled and edited in some latino content just to appease them. I am Latino and a Ken Burns fan and I don't think he should compromise the integrity of his work by tacking on an extra 30 min of irrelevant material. I don't understand these "latinos"; I mean where are the outcries and protests every time some 13 yr old gets pregnant or 16 yr old gets shot? Thanks for a good thread JB

[ChumpDumper]

He shouldn't have given it such an expansive name, and everyone should quit overrating him as the official documentarian of the history of the United States.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Sigh.

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http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA092307.07B.latinoveterans.34a6a9c.html

Latino WWII vets 'don't deserve this'

Web Posted: 09/22/2007 11:48 PM CDT

Cindy Tumiel
Express-News Staff Writer

Evelyn Jasso Garcia's father fought in World War II. So did six of her uncles. When service to their nation was finished, all the men came home to San Antonio to serve their community — as breadwinners for their families, leaders in their churches and advocates for minority civil rights.

All are deceased now, but Saturday morning, Garcia and two of her sisters took their family photos and stories into the streets, joining in a protest of a seven-part PBS World War II documentary that they feel slights the wartime contributions of Latino families such as theirs.

"They don't deserve this," said Garcia, a retired nurse. "They were dignified and respectful people who became servants in their community after they came back from the war. They kept on giving back."

The sisters were among about 100 people who came to the sidewalk outside KLRN, San Antonio's public television station, to protest tonight's start of "The War," a 14-hour documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns that weaves the stories of so-called ordinary Americans into the fabric of global war. Burns mingled wartime facts and film footage with narratives from people in four American communities who talked about the impact that the war had on their lives.

Latino perspectives and contributions were not included until after the documentary was completed and Hispanic groups complained. Burns tried to settle the nationwide controversy by adding 30 minutes of footage onto the end of the first, fifth and sixth episodes that tell about Latino and Native American war perspectives.

But that wasn't enough in the eyes of local Hispanic veteran and community groups, who organized the Defend the Honor San Antonio Coalition and came out Saturday to urge people to boycott the broadcast and its PBS corporate sponsors.

"This is the nation's story and we are being excluded from the nation's story," said historian Gilberto Hinojosa. "This is crumbs. They gave us the crumbs."

Protesters spent about an hour outside KLRN's Broadway studios, making speeches and waving handmade signs, some with the names of their family members who served in the war. The event was peaceful, and organizers took pains to note that they are not angry at the local PBS affiliate.

"KLRN stands with us; they are our partners," Gayle Arambula, a niece of the late Dr. Hector P. Garcia, founder of Hispanic civil rights group the American G.I. Forum.

KLRN president Joanne Winik was not present, but in a telephone interview said she had met with the protesters privately and understood their concerns.

"It is unfortunate that it has to come to this type of event," Winik said. "These are voices that deserve to be heard."

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/columnists/cguerra/stories/MYSA092007.01B.Guerra.2fd75ac.html

Carlos Guerra: Family appreciates Tío Beto's sacrifice, even if filmmaker doesn't

Web Posted: 09/19/2007 09:41 PM CDT

San Antonio Express-News

I am a man lucky to have grown up among my mother's clan, los Ramones, an unusually comedic bunch where laughter was prized and funny stories deserved at least a couple of retellings.

But we also were a closely knit bunch and not just by blood.

Across the street from the home where I was born lived my grandfather and two aunts who never married because, after their mother's death, it fell upon them to raise their younger siblings.

They never complained.

Next door to them lived a cousin's family, and next to them another of my mother's sisters, whose son is a Catholic bishop. To this day, he presides over all family baptisms, weddings and funerals. He isn't particularly funny, but we all love him because you never know what connections you one day may need.

The Ramones' gatherings were wondrous happenings, since they prided themselves on their honesty, honor and simplicity — and mostly because they joked around a lot.

But from a tender age, I learned that whenever Tío Beto came up in conversation, voices took a somber tone. Adalberto Ramón joined Robstown's National Guard unit for the few extra bucks each month and rose to master sergeant after being sent to invade Italy, where he was felled by a sniper's bullet.

How can I forget the sepia-toned photo of the dashing Beto in uniform? Or the 8-by-10 of his coffin in the Ramones' tiny house because in Robstown, like other South Texas towns, no funeral parlors would host viewings for fallen heroes like Beto?

Once, when a parade's color guard carried Old Glory along our street, my grandfather doffed his hat and told me that even if he, personally, never established his own citizenship, we should never forget the sacrifices of his Beto and those like him because they were made for all Americans, even those who, at the time, wouldn't allow us into so many places.

But such stories didn't find a place in Ken Burns' 15-hour series "The War," scheduled to premiere Sunday. Even if World War II completely changed the status of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans in U.S. society — and more importantly, changed how America deals with them — Latino soldiers didn't matter to Burns, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting or the Public Broadcasting System, any more than Latino musicians or baseball players mattered in Burns' "Jazz" and "Baseball" documentaries.

All that mattered to Burns were vets and their kin from Laverne, Minn.; Waterbury, Conn.; Mobile, Ala.; and Sacramento, Calif. — where, miraculously, Burns couldn't find a single Hispanic to interview.

Public Broadcasting?

So insensitive were the CPB and PBS executives that the original broadcast premiere of Burns' documentary was scheduled for Diez y Seis de Septiembre, the day most PBS stations reserve for marathon reruns of old Edward James Olmos movies.

When the heat turned up, Burns added 25 minutes of footage of two Hispanic vets and a Native American. Whoopee! But every critic who has seen the series has written that it is an appendage to Burns' original and looks that way.

I'm not asking anyone to follow, but when "The War" premieres, I won't watch.

I have familia, and that drives this one guy to stand up for el Tío Beto — en paz descanse — and all his compañeros and remember that he and his fellow soldiers did not die in vain.

Or to be left out.

I owe them all because they are why I am where I am, and I will never forget it.

[ChumpDumper]

Really guys, make your own documentary. Shouldn't be difficult to get a grant for it now.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Just wait until you read Carlos Guerra's next diatribe on this.

The only thing preventing me from doing damage with the water bottle by my side is that it's empty.

[Extra Stout]

Why don't Carlos Guerra and some of his ilk start a push to make a documentary about Latino contributions in World War II? Is somebody stopping them? Is Ken Burns the only person allowed to make World War II documentaries? Well, I guess he and Stephen Ambrose are the only two.

Funny, last I checked the Latino community in the United States was chock-full of people with talent in history and in the visual arts, who would be capable of making such a thing and amaking it well.

I'm sorry, I'm just accustomed to seeing all these Mexican immigrants full of work ethic and initiative. I forget that their grandchildren will become assimilated into the depraved American culture of entitlement and victimhood.

[ChumpDumper]

You know, up here in Austin they are showing a documentary about Hector P. Garcia right after a preview of Burns' film and immediately after will be showing a documentary about Texas role in WWII which I suppose might have some Latinos featured.

Go figure.

[1369]

You know, up here in Austin they are showing a documentary about Hector P. Garcia right after a preview of Burns' film and immediately after will be showing a documentary about Texas role in WWII which I suppose might have some Latinos featured.

Go figure.

I pulled the "yearbook" of the 36th Division off my bookshelf and just looking at the A/T company my grandfather commanded, I'd say there are a couple of latinos.

[ChumpDumper]

Exactly. Why should anyone have to look for Ken Burns for validation?

[1369]

Because a white guy made a movie and didn't include folks that had non-european last names.

That's a racial injustice dontcha know?

[ChumpDumper]

Aren't most Latino last names European in origin?

[CavsSuperFan]

Waiting for a Mouse Post about the Real Latino Contributions during WW2.... :stirpot:

[Extra Stout]

Aren't most Latino last names European in origin?
No, silly, Anglos have been oppressing Hispanic people ever since Cortez wiped out the Aztecs.

That was actuallly in a letter to the editor in the E-N when I was growing up.