Some have said that America’s first introduction to Latin culture came with “Ricky Ricardo”; others say Carmen Miranda, Xavier Cugat, Charo or Chico and the Man. The dilettantes at OldMagazineArticles.com are not qualified to answer such deep questions, but we do know that for a bunch of unfortunate Nazis and their far-flung Japanese allies, their first brush with “la vida loco Latino” came in the form of Private Anibal Irizarry, Colonel Pedro del Valle and Lieutenant Manuel Vicente: three stout-hearted Puerto Ricans who distinguished themselves in combat and lived to tell about it.
In 1917 the U.S. Congress granted American citizenship rights to the citizens of Puerto Rico – but they didn’t move to New York until the Fifties. Click here to read about that…
Click here to read an article about Latinas in the WAACs.
Mexico preferred not to participate in the war, but they did kick all the Fascist spies out of their country, click here to read about it…
