Latinoamericanos/hispanos en EEUU (VIII): Desde Felix Longoria hasta Bobby Sanabria, por Javier J. Jaspe

En pocas palabras. Javier J. Jaspe

Washington D.C.  

Esta es la octava entrega de una serie de artículos dedicados a reseñar los nombres y una breve semblanza biográfica de latinoamericanos/hispanos relacionados con territorios que hoy corresponden o se le asocian a Estados Unidos, con posterioridad a que Cristobal Colón descubriera a América en 1492. Los nombres que se incluyen se encuentran principalmente entre los que aparecen mencionados en el interesante libro: Latino Americans (The 500 – Year Legacy That Shaped A Nation), by Ray Suarez. El material usado para la semblanza biográfica ha sido seleccionado de entre textos publicados en Internet, en español o inglés, según sea el caso, los cuales se transcriben en itálicas. Sobre las características y propósitos de esta serie remitimos al primer artículo (http://latinoamericansintheunitedstates.blogspot.com/2017/05/latinoamericanoshispanos-en-eeuu-i-de.html). Este octavo artículo se refiere a nombres de personas que van desde Felix Longoria (asesinado en Las Filipinas en 1945 durante la segunda guerra mundial), hasta Bobby Sanabria (nacido en la ciudad de Nueva York en 1957). Veamos:

Felix Longoria: “FELIX LONGORIA AFFAIR. The controversy surrounding the burial of Felix Longoria provided a successful case for the American G. I. Forum^qv, a civil rights organization for Mexican Americans, to fight racial discrimination with political pressure. In 1948 the remains of Private Felix Longoria of Three Rivers, Texas, were recovered from the Philippines, where he had been killed on a volunteer mission during the last days of World War II. His body was shipped home for burial in the Three Rivers cemetery, where the "Mexican" section was separated by barbed wire. The director of the funeral home would not allow the use of the chapel because of alleged disturbances at previous Mexican-American services and because "the whites would not like it." Longoria's widow and her sister discussed the refusal with Dr. Hector Garcia, the founder of the American G. I. Forum. He, in turn, contacted the funeral director and received the same refusal and rationale. On January 11, 1949, Garcia called a meeting of the Corpus Christi Forum, which he had organized as the first G. I. Forum chapter in March 1948; he also sent many telegrams and letters to Texas congressmen. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson responded immediately with support and an offer to arrange the burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The funeral took place on February 16, 1949, at the Arlington National Cemetery; with the Longoria family were Senator Johnson and a personal representative of the president of the United States. After the funeral, the Texas House of Representatives authorized a five-member committee to investigate the Felix Longoria incident. The committee held open hearings at the Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce and, after recriminations and exculpatory arguments, concluded that there was no discrimination on the part of the funeral director and that he had acted in anger but had apologized. Four of the committeemen signed the report. Frank Oltorf, the fifth member, stated that the funeral director's words "appear to be discriminatory." Another member withdrew his name from the majority report and filed his own account, which stated that the actions of the director were on "the fine line of discrimination." The report was never filed. The Felix Longoria Affair provided Mexican Americans an example to unify and expand their struggle for civil rights in the coming decades.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carl Allsup, The American G.I. Forum: Origins and Evolution (University of Texas Center for Mexican American Studies Monograph 6, Austin, 1982).” (https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vef01). También puede verse: (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/longoria.htm); (http://www.drhectorpgarciafoundation.org/dr_garcia_on_lyndon_johnson_the_felix_longoria_affair_and_his_purpose); (http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/longoria-affair/).

Antonio Nuño González: “Antonio Nuño Gonzalez stood in line in Mexico and waited for his papers to come to the United States. Eventually he was packed into a cattle car with other men for the trip north. After crossing the border, he was sprayed with DDT and stripped naked for a physical examination so thorough he's still making ribald jokes about it more than 50 years later. It was all worth it for the chance to do back-breaking work — picking cotton, strawberries, lettuce and other California crops, from the desert heat of Brawley to the verdant coastal valley of Watsonville. His American employers housed him with hundreds of others in barracks, but provided three daily meals. "My belly was full," Nuño said. "Eating! That was the profit I got out of it." For a man who'd known hunger in his drought-stricken Mexican village, that was plenty. Nuño was a "bracero," a word derived from the Spanish word for arm, brazo, and the name given to temporary workers contracted from Mexico in the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Launched during the labor shortages of World War II, the bracero program led to 4.6 million legal border crossings of temporary workers to the United States. Complaints by labor unions and others about braceros lowering wages for Americans helped bring the program to an end in 1964.  The story of the braceros is an American epic. And it's an especially important chapter in the history of Ventura County, whose fields and orchards received more of the laborers than in any other county in the United States. In Ventura County today, thousands of families trace their roots to a bracero. Oxnard was home to the Buena Vista bracero camp, the largest in the nation, which at its peak housed 5,000 workers. For some, the bracero in the family past is a source of shame. "There's a lot of silences around this," said Jose Alamillo, a Cal State Channel Islands historian whose grandparents were braceros. "The memories have been suppressed." But Nuño, now 74, has never stopped talking about his strange and ultimately liberating experience. He won his first bracero contract in 1958. In many ways, it marked the beginning of his life as a truly free human being, he said. "I'm not ashamed of being poor," he said as we talked in his Santa Paula home. "I'm proud of the fact that I came to this country. Once I had something to eat, I used the money to improve my situation." Eventually Nuño became a permanent U.S. resident. He has four American-born children. None is a farm worker, but they all grew up hearing his story. "I don't want people to forget that there was a time when the United States rented people from Mexico," he said. The great drama of the braceros' journey is on public display this month at Cal State Channel Islands in Camarillo. Through this month, the campus is hosting "Bittersweet Harvest," a traveling exhibition of photographs from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. “ (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/15/local/la-me-tobar-20101015). También puede verse: (http://repository.library.csuci.edu/handle/10139/4128); (https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/omb01); (https://www.dentistry.iu.edu/bicchec_site/_ppt/patronage_and_progress.pdf); (https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/file-uploader/Bracero%20Historical%20Investigation.pdf).

Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (Desi Arnaz, Ricky Ricardo): “Desiderio Alberto Arnaz ye de Acha the Third was born in Santiago, Cuba on March 2, 1917. His father was the mayor of Santiago. The 1933 revolution led by Fulgencio Batista had landed his father in jail and stripped the family of its wealth, property and power. His father was released because of the intercession of U.S. officials who believed him to be neutral during the revolt. The family fled to Miami, Florida. One of Desi's first jobs in America consisted of cleaning canary cages. However, after forming his own small band of musicians, he was hired by Xavier Cugat, the "king" of Latin music. Desi soon left Cugat, formed his own Latin band and literally launched the conga craze in America. he was cast in the Broadway play "Too Many Girls", resulting in his being brought to Hollywood to make the film version of the play. It was on the set of Too Many Girls (1940) that he and Lucille Ball met. They soon married and approximately ten years later formed Desilu Productions and began the I Love Lucy (1951) shows. Desi and Lucille had two children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.. At the end of the I Love Lucy (1951) run (including the The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957)) the two divorced. Desi later wrote an autobiography entitled "A Book." In 1986 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and died on December 2, 1986.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Wynne Nafus <samantha@csb.cambridge.ne.us>” (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000789/bio). También puede verse: (http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/film-and-television-biographies/desi-arnaz); (http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/03/obituaries/desi-arnaz-tv-pioneer-is-dead-at-69.html); (https://www.k12hispanicoutlook.com/in-this-issue/2016/5/3/through-the-eyes-of-his-daughter-the-legacy-of-desi-arnaz-by-allison-waldman); (https://www.theawl.com/2016/10/best-forgotten-a-book-by-desi-arnaz-1976/).

Fulgencio Batista: ”Fulgencio Batista: (Banes, Cuba, 1901 - Guadalmina, España, 1973) Militar y político cubano. Nacido en el seno de una familia humilde, ingresó en el ejército más por necesidad que por vocación. Sin embargo, consiguió compatibilizar su carrera militar con los estudios de periodismo, que concluyó. El año 1928 fue ascendido al grado de sargento y destinado a Camp Columbia, en La Habana, donde entró en contacto con círculos militares opuestos a la dictadura de Gerardo Machado, de los que se erigió en máximo representante. En septiembre de 1933, tras la subida al poder de Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Fulgencio Batista articuló, junto con una serie de organizaciones estudiantiles también descontentas con la situación política, un motín militar que dio como resultado la constitución de un gobierno provisional encabezado por Ramón Grau de San Martín. Batista, verdadero hombre fuerte del país, se mantuvo en la sombra y otorgó la presidencia a distintos hombres de confianza, hasta que finalmente, en 1940, se hizo cargo del gobierno. Durante su primer mandato, que se prolongó hasta 1944, legalizó el Partido Comunista Cubano e introdujo una serie de reformas financieras y sociales que mejoraron parcialmente la maltrecha situación económica. Su mejor aliado, no obstante, continuó siendo el gobierno estadounidense, al que permitió el uso de sus bases militares durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Tras acceder a ser sustituido en la presidencia por Grau de San Martín, se trasladó a Florida, donde escribió Sombras de América, obra publicada en México en 1946. Regresó a Cuba en 1948, fecha en que fue elegido senador, cargo desde el que se dispuso a preparar su candidatura a la presidencia del país para las elecciones que debían celebrarse en junio de 1952. Sin embargo, poco antes de esta fecha, Batista protagonizó un golpe militar, tras el cual disolvió el Congreso, suspendió la Constitución de 1940 e ilegalizó todas las formaciones políticas. Erigido en dictador, consiguió reprimir la primera intentona comunista de 1953, encarcelando a Fidel Castro y sus seguidores. En el año 1957, con Castro al frente, la guerrilla revolucionaria relanzó sus ataques y la noche de fin de año de 1958, con el ejército y la población en contra, Batista se vio obligado a huir. Se estableció primero en la República Dominicana, luego en Madeira y por último en Guadalmina, cerca de Marbella, donde murió.”(https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/b/batista.htm). 

Salvador Agron: “Salvador Agron^{[note 1]} (April 24, 1943 – April 22, 1986), a.k.a. "The Capeman", was a Puerto Rican gang member who murdered two teenagers in a Hell's Kitchen park in 1959. Agron mistook both teenagers for members of a gang called the Norsemen who were supposed to show up for a gang fight. Agron was the subject of the musical The Capeman by Paul Simon… Agron was born in the city of Mayagüez on the western coast of Puerto Rico. When he was young, his parents divorced and his mother had custody of him and his sister, Aurea. She earned a living by working at a local convent; however, according to Agron, he and his sister were mistreated by the nuns. His mother met and married a Pentecostal minister and the family moved to New York City. Agron's relationship with his stepfather was negative, and he asked his mother to send him back to Puerto Rico to live with his father. In Puerto Rico, his father had remarried. One day the teenage Agron found the body of his stepmother, who had committed suicide by hanging herself. Agron began to get into trouble and was sent to the Industrial School of Mayagüez….^[1] His father sent him back to his mother in New York,and in 1958 he became a member of notorious teenage street gang the Mau Maus from the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn.^[2] He later joined another gang called the Vampires after meeting Tony Hernandez,^{[note 2]} the gang's president. On August 29, 1959, the Vampires were on their way to "rumble" (street gang fight) with a gang composed mostly of Irish Americans called the Norsemen. When they arrived, they mistook a group of teenagers for members of the Norsemen. Agron stabbed two of the teenagers to death and fled the scene. The two victims were Anthony Krzesinski and Robert Young, Jr.^[1] The murders made headlines in New York and the city went into an uproar. Agron was called "The Capeman" because he wore a black cape with red lining during the fight, while Hernandez was labeled "The Umbrella Man" because he used an umbrella with a sharp end as a weapon. After Agron was captured, he was quoted as saying: "I don't care if I burn, my mother could watch me….."^[.. Agron was sentenced to death, which made the 16-year-old the youngest prisoner ever sentenced to death row in New York. While many New Yorkers were outraged about the killings, others like former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert Young, the father of one of the victims, campaigned for leniency.^[1] While on death row, Agron became a born-again Christian. In prison he learned to read and write, earning his high school equivalency diploma. He wrote poems about his life and street life, including "The Political Identity of Salvador Agron; Travel Log of Thirty-Four Years", "Uhuru Sasa! (A Freedom Call)", and "Justice, Law and Order", which were published by some newspapers. He later earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociologyand philosophy from the State University of New York in New Paltz, New York. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1962.^[3]]… In December 1976, Governor Hugh Carey reduced Agron's sentence, making him eligible for release in 1977. Agron was enrolled at SUNY New Paltz while spending his nights at the Fishkill Correctional Facility. However, in April 1977, Agron took flight and absconded to Phoenix where he was captured two weeks later and brought back to New York. In November 1977, Agron went on trial for his escape (his lawyer was William Kunstler), but was found not guilty of absconding due to "mental illness."^[4] Agron was finally released from prison on November 1, 1979. A television movie based on his life was proposed and he set up a fund for the families of his victims with the money he received.^[1]… Agron began working as a youth counselor, and spoke out against gang violence for over five years. On April 16, 1986, he was admitted to a hospital with pneumonia and internal bleeding and died six days later at age 42.”^[3]”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Agron). También puede verse: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/salvador-agron-cape-man-article-1.402527.

Bobby Sanabria: “Bobby Sanabria -baterista, percusionista, compositor, arreglista, artista, productor y educador - ha tocado con una auténtica lista de las personalidades más reconocidas del mundo del jazz y la música latina, así como con su propio aclamado ensamble, Ascención. Su diversa experiencia en conciertos y grabaciones incluye trabajo con figuras legendarias como Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Paquito D'Rivera, Charles McPherson, Ray Barretto, Mongo Santamaría, Chico O'Farrill, Cándido, Francisco Aguabella, Henry Threadgill, y el padrino del jazz afro-cubano, Mario Bauzá. Bobby, el hijo de padres puertorriqueños, nació y fue criado en la sección del Bronx del Sur conocida como "Fort Apache", en la ciudad de Nueva York. Inspirado y animado por el Maestro Tito Puente, otro puertorriqueño nacido en Nueva York, Bobby tomó con seriedad su carrera y asistió a Berklee College of Music de 1975 a 1979, obteniendo una Licenciatura en Música. Recibió, además, el prestigioso Premio de la Asociación de Maestros por su trabajo como instrumentista. Desde su graduación, Bobby se ha convertido en un líder de las áreas de música afro-cubana y jazz como baterista y percusionista, y es reconocido como uno de los especialistas de la tradición. Ha estelarizado numerosos álbumes nominados al Grammy, incluyendo The Mambo Kings y otras bandas sonoras de películas. Además, ha trabajado extensamente en televisión y radio. Su trabajo de mayor aceptación por parte la crítica ha sido con la afamada Orquesta de Jazz Afro-Cubano de Mario Bauzá.Con esa agrupación grabó tres CDs nominados al Grammy, considerados como obras definitivas de la tradición de la grandes bandas del jazz afro-cubano. Sanabria también fue el enfoque en los documentales sobre Mario Bauzá producidos por la cadena PBS, y también apareció en el Show de Bill Cosby con la orquesta de Bauzá. Sanabria apareció prominentemente en un documental de PBS sobre la vida de Mongo Santamaría y como actor en la película para televisión de la CBS, Rivkin: Bounty Hunter.” (https://www.last.fm/es/music/Bobby+Sanabria/+wiki). También puede verse: (http://www.bobbysanabria.com/m/biography.php); (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Sanabria).

Apendice

Operation wetback

 “In the United States, Operation Wetback was enacted in the 1950s by immigration and Naturalization service. The effects of World War 2 caused a massive exodus of Mexican migrants into the U.S through the Rio Grande, into the Southwest part of the United States, to work as farm hands .  It was characterized by massive exploitation, and abuse of Mexican farm workers, by southwest farmers, law enforcement and Immigration agents.  Due to the massive abuse, the Mexican government, in response, in conjunction with the United States enacted a treaty to protect migrant Mexican bracero worker rights (Koestler. Web. 2012). This agreement did not stop the abuse, despite the Mexican government demand that the united States cease to use all Mexican workers. The United States immigration service with pressure from southwest farmers retaliated by enacting operation wetback, unlawful ceasing, detaining, and deporting any person who looked Mexican. Any deported individuals were not allowed back into the country; this did not stem or prevent the flow and re-entry of Mexican migrant workers in the United States. A 1950 study conducted by the 1950 by the President’s Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas, showed a 6,000 percent increase in migrant labor and a substantial reduction in wage levels around the southwest (Koestler. Web. 2012). In 1954, before the Operation Wetback began, there were over a million of workers crossed the United States Border illegally. Regardless of the risk of offending United States Laws, labors desired for jobs and opportunities to live better. Agricultural works were mostly replaced by cheap labor from Mexico; however, the massive movement also triggered violation of labor laws. Criminality, disease, and illiteracy were also bought into the country (Koestler. Web. 2012). The result of Operation Wetback was stunning. Gen. Joseph May Swing, in mid-July 1954, generated a military-related movement to search and capture illegal immigrants from Mexico. Beginning from the Rio Grande Valley, Wetback spread quickly; Illegal immigrants were sent back by forced and armed military. On July 15, the first day of the Wetback, 4,800 illegal immigrants were “gone”. From the day after, about 1,100 illegal immigrants were sent back per day. The United States government had shown that they do not tolerate illegal activities; however, the operation was very disrespectful (Koestler. Web. 2012). Acknowledgments: Fred L. Koestler, “OPERATION WETBACK,” Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pqo01), accessed March 23, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.” (https://1950immigration.wordpress.com/operation-wetback/). También puede verse: (http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Dwight_Eisenhower_Immigration.htm); (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/11/455613993/it-came-up-in-the-debate-here-are-3-things-to-know-about-operation-wetback); (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2016/11/donald_trump_mass_deportation_and_the_tragic_history_of_operation_wetback.html); (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/30/donald-trumps-humane-1950s-model-for-deportation-operation-wetback-was-anything-but/?utm_term=.67f66527c8f4).

Continuará....