Excerpts from “Mexican americans and the Bataan death March” Obituaries Tell Tales

the chicano research center’s (crc) first publication entitled, Mexican americans and the Bataan death March: WWii Battle of Bataan and its aftermath, is projected to be available sometime in May 2023. it will be presented in magazine format with the layout done by Gráfica design. this publication will be the first in a series of publications intended to promote teaching, learning, scholarship, and research focusing hicano experience.

tsearch project are Hispano members of the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery Regiments who were deployed on a special assignment to the Philippines three months before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

t he Philippines were attacked within a few hours of Pearl Harbor making Hispanos part of the first sustained u. s . military battles of WW ii . With the destruction of the u s naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Regiments were r ichard soto pudo adquirir un estudio compilado por el autor samuel (sam) ortega (1935-2022), de Sacramento, California. Sam había contratado a un investigador para identificar a los hispano-veteranos de Bataan y recopilar sus esquelas necrológicas. Mediante la localización de estos obituarios y bases de datos militares para verifi- continúa a la vuelta cut off from supplies and any form of support. t heir story became one of heroic resistance to enemy advances, and then of survival as POWs under horrific conditions and inhumane treatment by their Japanese captors. t he body of existing literature on bataan has many personal accounts written by survivors or accounts written by others about Bataan survivors’ experiences. However, there is nothing written by Hispano or Mexican American bataan survivors. t he experiences of a few Hispano bataan survivors were captured in interviews by the university of texas at Austin school of Journalism, ‘Voces’ Oral History Project. under Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez’ leadership, two books were published containing interviews of Hispano Bataan survivors entitled, A Legacy Greater Than Words: Stories of U.S. Latinos & Latinas of the WWII Generation (2006 )and Latina/os and World War II: Mobility, Agency, and Ideology (2014). Also, New Mexico Author Dorothy Cave published two books that include interviews of Hispano bataan survivors entitled Four Trails To Valor (1998), and Beyond Courage; One Regiment Against Japan, 1941-1945 (2014). These sources were used in the CrC’s publication.

Soto, era aportar nueva información sobre los hispanoamericanos y la Marcha de la Muerte de Bataan a la literatura existente. Por supuesto, realizar entrevistas habría sido la forma ideal de recopilar nueva información. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los veteranos de Bataan nacieron entre 1910 y 1920 — algunos nacieron incluso antes— y ya han fallecido. Esta vía de información se cerró y el reto pasó a ser encontrar otra fuente de información o alternativa.

One of the goals of the CRC Director and co-author, Richard Soto, was to contribute new information about Hispanos and the Bataan Death March to the body of existing literature. Of course, conducting interviews would have been the ideal way to gather new information. However, most Bataan veterans were born between 1910 and 1920, with some born earlier, and they have since passed on. t his avenue to information was closed, and the challenge became finding another or alternative source of information. r ichard s oto was able to acquire the research compiled by author samuel (sam) Ortega (1935-2022), of Sacramento, California. sam had hired a researcher to identify Hispano bataan veterans and collect their obituaries. by locating obituaries and utilizing military databases to verify assignment to the 200th and 515th, Ortega compiled a binder containing data that identified 234 Hispano veterans of bataan. t he actual number of Hispano members of the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery Regiments has not been definitively confirmed. t he estimates for the total number of the Regiments’ troops range between 1,500 and 1,800 with between 480 and 600 Hispano members. Lists of 200th and 515th membership do exist, but identifying Hispanos strictly by spanish surname is problematic for various reasons. For example, many Hispano last names are not outwardly of spanish origin (e.g., Vigil, Hill, Mares, Garley, etc.). Also, Native Americans had Spanish surnames like, Navajo, José Miguel Romero —featured in one of Cave’s books.

The data gathered confirmed date of birth (DOB), date of death (DOD), military unit, manner of death, POW status, and interment sites. More importantly, the obituaries captured dramatic and heart wrenching stories about the death march, prisoner of war camps, and hell ships that Hispano bataan veterans had shared with their families. these compiled and previously un-