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Brandon Zulueta

English 101

Ms. Batty

8 March 2017

Latino veterans in World War II

This mural I found was a painting of the dedication of Latino men who served 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. Among Heroes 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

because he wanted to create something that would educate and empower the community. All he

wanted is to create something important to make the people proud of his work, and he did that by

creating murals. The mural became an icon for people, seeing it as a devotion to Latino/a

Americans. 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 (Aguilar). The mural shows Latino mens

faces 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 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 using images and colors, the

meaning of how Latino-Americans fought for their lives during the war, giving us that they
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arent just hard workers or laborers that we know, and that they show us that they are just more

than that.

The mural has many patriotic images. The mural shows forty faces of Latino/a Americans

who served during the war. The viewer can see them wearing different types of uniforms

resembling 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.

It also has images of the battlefield on different fronts 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.

The colors on the Mural are vintage. Most parts of it is painted either tan, white, grey and

black. It shows some blue colors resembling the skies on the top and the color green on the

painted soldiers. The outline of the sketch started with black or grey, with a small brush or pencil

probably. The shadings on the painting are likely rough on some parts, since the wall he painted

on is bumpy. Aguilar also painted the US and Mexican flag with their standard flag colors on the

bottom of the mural, resembling being patriotic and their ethnicity.

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

The Orange County Register (Theresa Cisneros), creating the Among Heroes mural requires to

spread the word of Aguilars project. His words got deeply spread, which gotten residents of the
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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. (Carlos

Aguilar).

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/a Americans veterans deserve our gratitude and respect, just

like any other veterans we show ours to them too.

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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.

Cisneros, Theresa. "Painter pays homage to veterans through mural." Orange County

Register. Orange County Register, n.d. Web. 25 May 2017.