By Anita Rice
Hector De Peña never saw any action on the battlefield during World War II. He never stormed the beach at Normandy, never liberated the prisoners of Europe's concentration camps and never fired upon the Japanese or Germans. The war he fought was against the entrenched discriminatory practices used against Latinos during the time of the war.
By Darcie Stevens
As news of the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor came over the radio on Dec. 7, 1941, a 20-year-old Polly Muñoz Abarca started dreaming of places worlds away from her dorm room in Corpus Christi, Texas.
None of the students at Fred Roberts Nursing School had ever seen war.
"We were so innocent," Abarca said.
By Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
Johnnie W. Flores was the fifth of seven children born to Jose Maria and Teresa (Huizar) Flores, on a farm outside of Somerset, Texas, a community southeast of San Antonio.
In the mid-1930s, Johnnie moved to Los Angeles, where he lived and worked until he enlisted in the Army in 1941. He served with the Co. B, 36th Infantry Regiment.
By Bettina Luis
CORPUS CHRISTI, TX-On October 21, 2000, through the efforts of former alumni, a historical marker was erected on the south side of the Nueces County courthouse dedicated to the Cheston L. Heath Grammar School. The marker denoted one of the only segregated schools in Texas.
By Bettina Luis
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Standing at attention, his thumbs aligned with the seam of the trouser, his heels together at a 45-degree angle. Thomas Cantu Jr. looked straight ahead as he was awarded the Air Medal in 1943 for completing 150 combat flying hours.