Zulueta, Brandon

English 101

Ms. Batty

3/1/17

Latino veterans in World War II

This mural I found was a painting of the dedication of Latino men serving in World War

II, whether its flying high over Europe in a B-17 bomber, raiding islands in the pacific, or

serving as infantrymen in theaters. The artist who created the mural, Carlos Aguilar painted it to

honor the citys veterans who served in World War II. His most important reason why he wanted

to do all of this is because he wanted to create something that would educate and empower the

community which he means he wants to create something important to make the people proud.

The mural shows Latino mens faces of those who served in the armed forces of the United

States whether it's the army, marines, navy, or air force. In fact, some veterans in the artwork had

a history of them not being born in the US. Most of them were born in Mexico or Puerto Rico

but were raised in America to get a better life. I found all of this to be strongly inspiring, because

the mural shows a meaning of how Latino-Americans fought for their lives during the war,

giving us that they arent just hard workers or laborers that we know, and that they show us that

they are just more than that.

Carlos Aguilar is the man who painted the mural, Among Heroes which is a dedication

to all Latinos who served in World War II. His mural was painted on the side of a two story store

building, which took him two years to finish painting. Aguilar was born in Mexico and raised in

Mission Viejo, California. He started painting other murals around the area, besides from the
wanted to create something that would educate and empower the community, WWII one he

made recently. All he wanted is to create something important to make the people proud of his

work, and he did that by creating murals. His famous mural Among Heroes became an icon for

people, seeing it as a devotion to Latino-Americans.

The mural shows forty faces of Latino-Americans who served during the war. You could

see them wearing different types of uniforms, resembling them of what branch they served in.

They also show the names of the veterans, just the below their faces. The background shows a

bald eagle in the middle, with the American stripes to the side of its feet. More on the

background, there are B-17 bombers flying over on the left side, and naval F4F Wildcat fighters

flying in a formation from the right. The middle section to the right of the mural shows a

background of soldiers fighting in battlegrounds. The mural is located in Custer Street and

Washington Avenue in the Logan neighborhood, which is located in Los Angeles. People view

the mural as an inspiration to those who served and how much they sacrificed for their country.

Aguilar wanted to paint the mural to bring back history for his community. Creating the

Among Heroes mural requires to spread the word of Aguilars project. His words got deeply

spread, which gotten residents of the Logan Barrio in the area, to donate pictures of relatives to

add on the wall. The owner of restaurant who gave Aguilar permission to paint the mural on the

side of his building, decided to donate paint and supplies to help him on his project. When the

mural was finished, there was a guest of honor who represent himself to Aguilars community

and his name is Noe Espindola. Hes a World War II veteran who served in the pacific as a

paratrooper with the Armys 11th Airborne Division. He was only teenager when he served 72

years ago. Among 500,000 Mexican-Americans, including Espindola, served in World War II.
Among Heroes has become more than a work of art. Its now a gathering place for veterans

and their family members, a classroom for college students and a reflection of American history

thats often overlooked.

What I think about all of this is that I find this mural very inspiring to me personally.

This shows how much we should start appreciating veterans and it doesnt matter where theyre

from or who they were. I feel like history only remembers one of a thousand of them of what

they did to become heroes. Latino-Americans veterans deserve our gratitude and respect, just

like any other veterans we show ours to them too.

Work Cited

Staggs, Brooke Edwards. "Massive mural in Santa Ana, four years in the making, sheds light on

Mexican-American history." The Orange County Register. N.p., 14 May 2016. Web. 28

Feb. 2017.