The Strangeness of Ken Burns' Latino/Hispanic WWII stories [View All]

[bajamary]

I was just trying to participate in the Live Discussion on the WAPO with Ken Burns about his 14 1/2 epic PBS special "The War". Alas, my question which I submitted the night before and during the "live" discussion never made it to the light of type BUT they did allow one question about the lack of Hispanic/Latino stories in his very long documentary. But what a curious answer Ken gave.

For over 20 years I headed the MacArthur Foundation Library Media Project, and my late father was the head of all media funding at the MacArthur Foundation until his death in 1990. He was also a veteran of "The War". I believe my father, William Kirby, would also have been deeply disturbed by Ken Burns' response to ligimate (non politically correct) questions about why he excluded all of the Latino/Hispanic stories in his version of "The War, especially because one of the cities Burns selected was Sacramento, CA.

Sacramento, CA has had a significant Latino/Hispanic population throughout the 20th Century, so how did Ken's 14 1/2 hour well funded epic miss these Americans?
From his rather limited response the to one WAPO allowed question on this subject, he said they included stories from people "who came forward".

Here's the discussion:

Washington, D.C.: Ken,
Many of us viewed with some sympathy your efforts to placate the Hispanic Caucus and Latino pressure groups but at the same time felt that selecting one ethnic group as a featured segment was an arbitrary surrender to political pressure. What was the numerical justification, if any, for the inclusion of Latinos? What percentage of the U.S. forces were they? What about blacks (which I thought was well enough covered, briefly but with all attendant ironies and ambiguities)?

Ken Burns: When we set out to do this film we made a pact with ourselves not to seek out any particular ethnic group. In the course of our five years spent in each of our four towns a diverse number of people came forward. Unfortunately, no Hispanics did. At first, we resisted making any editions to the film we finished in early 2006 but we realized that art has an obligation to transcent petty politics, even though many of those criticizing us had not seen a fram of our film and therefore cound't understand that we were not trhing to be definitive. We decided to transcend the situation, to rise above the politically correct bickering and to produce new content that would not in any way compromise our original vision but would go some distance toward honoring the concerns of this group.

I would like to know what precisely was the process that Ken Burns & his team followed to "get people to come forward"? Did they put out an announcement in their choice of local newspapers? OR just have a brief advert on the local PBS station? or maybe have a list of family/freinds/acquiantences that they ask to "come forth".
If "step forward" was the criteria for all of the stories being told in a series called "The War", shouldn't it be correctly be named "Stories from Those Who Came Forward".

One hallmark of Burns' well funded films is their very thorough research of documentaries and documentary footage on a given subject which often yields brilliant images and moving stories.

Did he or his staff see "Hero Street USA" which aired on PBS? . The Department of Defense in Washington, D.C, that there is no other street of comparable size that has had as many men and women render service in WW II to the Armed Forces of the United States of America then the 1 1/2 block long street in Silvis, IL called "Hero Street USA".

Granted Silvis, IL wasn't one of the focus cites, but there are several resources (films & the DOD) that show the important contributions of the Hispanic/Latino military personnel in WWII. And gosh, Sacramento, California must have had many Hispanic/Latino participants in "The War".

It's been said that "History belongs to those that tell it". Perhaps "The War" will be best remembered not for the stories it told, but for those it failed to even see.