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“Raíces Fuertes y Corazones Fuertes”

Austin artist Nikki Diaz has created Voces Oral History Center’s first limited-edition screen print. This original 8-color serigraph, “Raíces Fuertes y Corazones Fuertes,” commemorates the resilience of our greater Latino community in the face of the ongoing pandemic, featuring themes from the Voces of a Pandemic collection.

A signed print of “Raíces" would be a meaningful gift for friends and family affected by the novel coronavirus. A print may also be gifted to an organization or a cultural institution.

Image size: 19" high x 11" wide
Paper: White BFK, 22" high x 15" wide

The US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal is a research publication created to mine, showcase, and promote the rich field of oral history as it relates specifically to the US Latina and Latino experience. Debuting this fall, this annual volume focuses on specific topics, the first of which is dedicated to Latinos, the Voting Rights Act, and Political Engagement. Manuscripts are blind peer-reviewed and represent best practices of oral history and the highest research standards. The University of Texas Press publishes the journal for UT-Austin’s Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) with support by the Voces Oral History Project at the university's School of Journalism. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, UT professor of journalism, is the journal’s founding editor.

Up to 750,000 Mexican American men served in World War II, earning more Medals of Honor and other decorations in proportion to their numbers than any other ethnic group. Mexican American women entered the workforce on the home front, supporting the war effort and earning good wages for themselves and their families. But the contributions of these men and women have been largely overlooked as American society celebrates the sacrifices and achievements of the "Greatest Generation." To bring their stories out of the shadows, this book gathers eleven essays that explore the Mexican American experience in World War II from a variety of personal and scholarly perspectives.

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This volume features summaries of the interviews and photographs of the individuals. Among the people included are Mexican American civil rights leaders such as Pete Tijerina and Albert Armendariz of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and Virgilio Roel of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Others are community leaders such as Pete and Elena Gallego of Alpine, Texas, and military leaders such as Colonel Hank Cervantes and flying ace Richard Candelaria. Women who served in the military are also included. There are academic trailblazers, too, such as Frank Bonilla, who became a major figure in Puerto Rican studies. And there are a few Latinos who describe serving in segregated "colored" units during the war, as their physical features placed them in African American communities.

An anthology of remarkable voices drawn from the U.S. Latino & Latina WW II Oral History Project, bringing to life the transformations they spurred.

This eye-opening anthology documents, for the first time, the effects of World War II on Latina/o personal and political beliefs across a broad spectrum of ethnicities and races within the Latina/o identity.

Written for general readers as well as scholars, this book sheds new light on the local activism that propelled the national civil rights movement, as well as on the birth of an organization that has been at the forefront of Mexican American and Latino civil rights.