Guest Column
GI Forum founded by WWII Veteran questions PBS
GI Forum founded by WWII Veteran questions PBS program ignoring Mexican-American’s participation in war.
By Suzanne Gamboa
WASHINGTON – Associated Press - April 4, 2007 - Hispanic groups unhappy with
an upcoming Ken Burns documentary on World War II are stepping up pressure
on PBS because they say the series omits mention of the role Latinos played
in the war.
The latest group to take their grievance to PBS is the American GI Forum,
a Latino veterans group that has waged numerous civil rights battles for
Latinos and Latino veterans.
The American GI Forum is appealing to Latino veterans and other Latino
groups to write members of Congress and their local PBS affiliates about the
documentary that has been six years in the making.
This week, GI Forum President Antonio Morales of Fort Worth, Texas, and
other Latino leaders met in Washington with PBS President Paula Kerger to
lodge their complaints about the 14-hour Burns documentary set to air this
September, Hispanic Heritage month.
''We are not going to tolerate this omission,'' Morales said after the
meeting.
PBS said it would respond in two weeks. In the meantime, the network
issued a statement:
''While PBS has been a leading forum for these voices to be heard, thereis
more that needs to be done. We will expand upon our commitment, particularly
around the creation and delivery of content that better represents the
diversity of the audiences we serve.''
In a statement issued by his publicist, Burns and co-producer Lynn Novick
said they were ''dismayed and saddened'' by any assumptions they
intentionally left out any group. ''Nothing could be further from the
truth,'' they said.
They urged viewers to see the series before judging it, and they said
they hope it will prompt discussions about World War II.
The Burns series documents the war from the perspective of four U.S.
communities: Waterbury, Conn.; Luverne, Minn.; Birmingham, Ala.; and
Sacramento, Calif. Burns has produced several highly acclaimed series on
American history, including PBS-aired programs on the Civil War and
baseball.
''In this latest project, we have attempted to show the universal human
experience of war by focusing on the testimonies of just a handful of people
mostly from four American towns. As a result, millions of stories are not
explored in our film,'' Burns and Novick said.
The GI Forum also met with Latino members of Congress this week to plan a
strategy to raise the issue nationally.
The GI Forum was founded in 1948 in Corpus Christi, Texas, by a physician
who recognized that Mexican-American veterans were not getting equal
treatment in veterans hospitals or receiving benefits they were promised for
their service.
Their meeting followed one earlier this week by the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus with Kerger and earlier meetings with PBS officials and a
coalition of Latino groups that first took up the issue. The coalition is
calling its fight the Defend the Honor campaign.
The controversy over the Burns documentary has been simmering for months,
since University of Texas journalism professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
learned the film did not include Latinos.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)