LUQUILLO, Puerto Rico — Nestled between El Yunque Nationwide Forest and the shores of the ocean lives Andrés González Vega, one of many final remaining World Warfare II veterans.
Don Andrés, or “Dede,” as he is affectionately recognized in his hometown, is 101 years outdated and one of many practically 16.4 million troopers who fought within the conflict from 1941 to 1945 as a part of the U.S. navy.
Eighty years after the tip of the conflict, lower than 1% of all World Warfare II veterans nonetheless reside. Don Andrés, who’s writing a memoir, is considered one of them.
With the assistance of his daughter, Julia González, Don Andrés is writing a e-book to doc practically a century of life.
González Vega, who nonetheless retains the lucidity and reminiscence of a historian, remembers intimately how at age 18 he needed to report back to Fort Buchanan, in San Juan. After per week of medical and bodily evaluations, his title echoed over the camp’s loudspeaker.
“I used to be ready for that decision,” González Vega proudly remarked in his native Spanish. Lined up alongside all the opposite younger Puerto Ricans, González Vega handed in his sneakers, socks, pants, underwear and shirt earlier than he left the camp to combat within the conflict.
Having lunch along with her father at his dwelling, González mentioned it has been a problem for her father to put in writing his memoir as a result of Don Andrés “at all times likes to speak in regards to the good issues,” although life has each ups and downs, she mentioned.
However González Vega, generally known as a defender and promoter of Puerto Rican tradition, can also be acknowledging previous struggles and challenges as he talks about his life.
Each he and his daughter keep in mind strolling down the streets of New York, the place they lived for a few years, and seeing indicators studying, “Puerto Ricans Go Residence.” In addition they recalled the handfuls of instances they needed to paint over their dwelling after it was tagged with racial slurs like “Spic Go Residence.”
The memoir will doc Don Andrés’ time within the conflict, his experiences in New York as one of many founders of the enduring Nationwide Puerto Rican Day Parade and his accomplishments in Puerto Rico because the creator of the Coconut Pageant in Luquillo and a competition coordinator on the Institute of Puerto Rican Tradition.
Consuming his favourite hen wings with tostones, or fried plantains, Don Andrés nostalgically reminisced in regards to the days when most Puerto Ricans walked barefoot via the countryside and fetched water from a nicely.
González Vega, who was born on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques on Could 30, 1924, mentioned that as a baby, he would cross a river on his technique to faculty and harvest the bananas and avocados he cherished to eat with cod.
Regardless of having lived exterior Puerto Rico for 29 years, González Vega nonetheless considers himself a “jíbaro,” a rural Puerto Rican who in recent times has change into a logo of Puerto Rican folklore.
Recognized for carrying a particular straw hat known as “la pava,” “jíbaros” traditionally have been individuals who lived in rural Puerto Rico and labored on farms. As we speak, artists like Unhealthy Bunny, along with his newest album, “DeBÍ TIRAR MáS FOToS,” search to spotlight photographs and scenes depicting jíbaros like Don Andrés.
Going to conflict
Upon finishing his navy coaching within the city of Gurabo, González Vega obtained an order: “Pack every little thing up, we’re going to go away,” he recalled. Dozens of vehicles started selecting up the Puerto Rican troopers and transporting them to San Juan. There, all of them boarded a huge ship — he had by no means been on one earlier than. At night time, as they set sail, all they may see have been the lights of the capital metropolis.
“Goodbye, my beloved Borinquen, goodbye, my land of the ocean, I’m leaving, however in the future I’ll return,” he repeated melancholically, just like the lyrics of the enduring tune “En Mi Viejo San Juan,” as he recalled the day he left Puerto Rico for the primary time.
González Vega, alongside hundreds of different troopers, arrived on the Guantánamo Bay navy base in Cuba. They stayed there for a number of days till a naval escort took them to their closing vacation spot — Panama, as he recalled the journey there.
“Generally the sirens sounded, they usually needed to flip off all of the lights, and everybody needed to go right down to their cabins and be quiet. Then, they instructed us there was a German submarine surrounding the ship. We had about three scares in Cuba, not understanding the place we have been going,” González Vega mentioned. “I don’t know what number of days, as a result of the ship was coasting, till we reached Panama.”
Upon his arrival within the metropolis of Balboa, in Panama, a gaggle of U.S. troopers shocked him with espresso and recent milk after an arduous journey with scarce meals.
Understanding only some phrases of English — which he discovered from a well-liked Puerto Rican kids’s tune from the Nineteen Thirties created by a bilingual trainer — González Vega crossed the Panamanian jungle to succeed in his assigned station.
Shortly after he arrived, González Vega was promoted to non-public first-class and later to sergeant, overseeing a gaggle of Puerto Rican troopers.
González Vega mentioned that considered one of his most tough moments was when his mom, María Vega, was hospitalized with bronchial asthma in Puerto Rico. One afternoon on the Panama Canal, he was engaged on an intense goal apply session, so determined to be along with his mom that his head damage, he mentioned. Minutes later, he was instructed he needed to report back to the navy airport and was taken to Puerto Rico on the mail airplane.
Don Andrés cared for his mom till she recovered. Fifteen days later, he returned to the Panama Canal till the tip of the conflict.
For his service, Don Andrés obtained the American Theater Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the World Warfare II Victory Medal.
Dealing with racism and challenges
In 1947, González Vega was a part of a wave of Puerto Ricans who migrated to New York for financial causes.
Within the metropolis, he unexpectedly bumped into considered one of his buddies from Panama. Collectively, they remembered former World Warfare II colleagues, lots of whom later died serving within the Korean Warfare.
“Perhaps that [death] would have occurred to me, too,” González Vega mentioned.
González Vega raised his daughter, Julia, along with his spouse within the Massive Apple.
One among his daughter’s childhood recollections is when she returned from faculty in the future and noticed her father portray a part of the home after somebody had tagged it with an insult: “Spics Go Residence,” they each recounted.
At the moment, minority teams in america confronted the racial tensions of the segregation period and the battle for civil rights. That deeply affected Don Andrés, who noticed how a Black particular person might be sitting in a single place and, if a white particular person arrived, must quit the seat instantly, the veteran mentioned.
To channel his indignation, González Vega was a part of the founding group creating the Nationwide Puerto Rican Parade in New York. He remembers how the group pressured the mayor, Robert Wagner, to grant them entry to the well-known Fifth Avenue for the parade.
“They went to Wagner, ‘If you need our vote, we wish to march on Fifth Avenue,’” González Vega recalled, who additionally remembered the various Puerto Ricans who fought to even have voter registration kinds in Spanish. “From there, Puerto Rican politics started, with many rising leaders working for workplace, and right now, you see that,” he mentioned.
Making crafts, recording recollections
Don Andrés later returned to Puerto Rico, the place he accomplished his bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration and labored as a competition coordinator on the Institute of Puerto Rican Tradition and based the Coconut Pageant in Luquillo.
The daddy and daughter reside 50 ft from one another, in concrete homes surrounded by crops that develop avocados, pigeon peas and plantains. González calls her father each morning to go over the day’s errands. After their chat, Don Andrés goes down 12 steps from the second ground of his home to sit down within the eating room for breakfast: a glass of scorching milk with bananas and oranges.
He makes handmade crafts, together with conventional Puerto Rican musical devices like his signature güiros and maracas.
When González Vega visits El Yunque to promote his work, he generally wonders whether or not he ought to cease, as his daughter is the one who helps him carry the heavy desk and arrange his store along with his handmade devices.
“I don’t need you to cease. I would like you to proceed,” González mentioned with nice emotion.
González, who goals of making a spot that gives Puerto Rican crafts, espresso and wine, mentioned that whereas she has to make a listing to attempt to keep in mind the issues she has to perform, “my dad has every little thing in his thoughts. I wish to proceed to do every little thing in the best way he has at all times achieved them.”
Don Andrés mentioned, “I thank God for giving me a daughter like Julia, who means every little thing to me.”
Requested whether or not he has instructed his entire story, he replied with a smile: “I haven’t instructed you something but.”
González Vega continues his days reminiscing about his recollections and having fun with the time he has along with his daughter whereas singing his personal model of Unhealthy Bunny’s hit “Café Con Ron,” which rhymes in Spanish and loosely interprets to “Espresso within the morning, and within the afternoon ham (jamón), we take pleasure in every little thing sitting within the balcony” (balcón).
An earlier model of this story was first printed in The Latino Reporter, a information web site sponsored by the Nationwide Affiliation of Hispanic Journalists and produced by pupil members, who cowl the group and its annual convention.
