Puerto Rican centenarian is one among final WWII veterans — and he is telling his story
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 Conflict II veterans.
Don Andrés, or “Dede,” as he is affectionately identified in his hometown, is 101 years previous and one of many practically 16.4 million troopers who fought within the warfare from 1941 to 1945 as a part of the U.S. army.
Eighty years after the top of the warfare, lower than 1% of all World Conflict II veterans nonetheless reside. Don Andrés, who’s writing a memoir, is one among them.
With the assistance of his daughter, Julia González, Don Andrés is writing a ebook 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 footwear, socks, pants, underwear and shirt earlier than he left the camp to struggle within the warfare.
Having lunch along with her father at his house, 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 bear in mind strolling down the streets of New York, the place they lived for a few years, and seeing indicators studying, “Puerto Ricans Go Dwelling.” Additionally they recalled the handfuls of occasions they needed to paint over their house after it was tagged with racial slurs like “Spic Go Dwelling.”
The memoir will doc Don Andrés’ time within the warfare, his experiences in New York as one of many founders of the long-lasting Nationwide Puerto Rican Day Parade and his accomplishments in Puerto Rico because the creator of the Coconut Pageant in Luquillo and a pageant 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 by means of the countryside and fetched water from a properly.
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 solution to college and harvest the bananas and avocados he liked 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 grow to be an emblem of Puerto Rican folklore.
Recognized for sporting a particular straw hat known as “la pava,” “jíbaros” traditionally have been individuals who lived in rural Puerto Rico and labored on farms. In the present day, artists like Unhealthy Bunny, together with his newest album, “DeBÍ TIRAR MáS FOToS,” search to focus on photos and scenes depicting jíbaros like Don Andrés.
Going to warfare
Upon finishing his army coaching within the city of Gurabo, González Vega obtained an order: “Pack all the things up, we’re going to go away,” he recalled. Dozens of vans started choosing up the Puerto Rican troopers and transporting them to San Juan. There, all of them boarded a big 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 sooner or later I’ll return,” he repeated melancholically, much like the lyrics of the long-lasting track “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 army base in Cuba. They stayed there for a number of days till a naval escort took them to their ultimate 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 informed 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 youngsters’s track from the Thirties created by a bilingual instructor — González Vega crossed the Panamanian jungle to succeed in his assigned station.
Shortly after he arrived, González Vega was promoted to personal firstclass and later to sergeant, overseeing a gaggle of Puerto Rican troopers.
González Vega mentioned that one among his most troublesome 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 follow session, so determined to be together with his mom that his head damage, he mentioned. Minutes later, he was informed he needed to report back to the army 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 top of the warfare.
For his service, Don Andrés obtained the American Theater Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the World Conflict II Victory Medal.
Going through 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 one among his buddies from Panama. Collectively, they remembered former World Conflict II colleagues, lots of whom later died serving within the Korean Conflict.
“Possibly that [death] would have occurred to me, too,” González Vega mentioned.
González Vega raised his daughter, Julia, together with his spouse within the Huge Apple.
Considered one of his daughter’s childhood recollections is when she returned from college sooner or later and noticed her father portray a part of the home after somebody had tagged it with an insult: “Spics Go Dwelling,” they each recounted.
At the moment, minority teams in the USA confronted the racial tensions of the segregation period and the wrestle for civil rights. That deeply affected Don Andrés, who noticed how a Black particular person could possibly be sitting in a single place and, if a white particular person arrived, must hand over 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’d like 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 varieties in Spanish. “From there, Puerto Rican politics started, with many rising leaders operating for workplace, and as we speak, 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 pageant 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 vegetation 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 take a seat 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 typically 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 together with his handmade devices.
“I don’t need you to cease. I would like you to proceed,” González mentioned with nice emotion.
González, who desires of making a spot that provides Puerto Rican crafts, espresso and wine, mentioned that whereas she has to make a listing to attempt to bear in mind the issues she has to perform, “my dad has all the things in his thoughts. I wish to proceed to do all the things in the way in which he has at all times achieved them.”
Don Andrés mentioned, “I thank God for giving me a daughter like Julia, who means all the things to me.”
Requested whether or not he has informed his complete story, he replied with a smile: “I haven’t informed you something but.”
González Vega continues his days reminiscing about his recollections and having fun with the time he has together 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 all the things sitting within the balcony” (balcón).
An earlier model of this story was first revealed 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.
