Cartoonist draws Latino stories absent from `War'

Cartoonist Hector Cantu looks at a photo of his uncles who served in the US military in World War I in Richardson, Texas, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

Cartoonist Hector Cantu decided that if the stories of Hispanic US soldiers were going to go untold in Ken Burns' upcoming World War II documentary, a comic strip character would tell them.

This week, Cantu and co-creator Carlos Castellanos unveiled Benito "Benny" Ramirez in their syndicated comic strip Baldo, which appears in 200 newspapers.

COMPOSITE

Benito is a composite character based on the real stories of several Hispanic World War II veterans. Their experiences are featured in a book by University of Texas journalism professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez.

"We are telling a little story about a Latino serving in World War II and there will be millions of people exposed to that," said Cantu, whose two uncles were veterans of the war. "Will we reach as many as Ken Burns? Probably not. But there will be more people out there who know about Latinos serving in the US military."

The Baldo strips, running through Sept. 27, are among several activities planned around the Sunday start of Burns' 15-hour series, The War, which Hispanic groups have criticized for inadequate representation of their role.

"This is not just going to be about people being angry," said Rivas-Rodriguez. "We need to walk away from this feeling empowered and feeling we stood up and said we are not going to take this anymore."

Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for Burns, said: "We have said everything we are going to say about this issue."

AGREEMENT

After Hispanic groups initially complained about the documentary, Burns and PBS struck an agreement with the American GI Forum, a Hispanic veterans group, to hire filmmaker Hector Galan to add Hispanic voices before the credits rolled.

That did not satisfy some, including Rivas-Rodriguez.

"He continues to say things like he rose above the politics," Rivas-Rodriguez said. "I'm still not convinced he understands what this is about."

ADDED

Two Hispanics were added to the first episode's discussion of the Battle of Guadalcanal, the first Allied offensive attack on Japanese forces, Galan said.

Galan said Burns' archival footage had many Hispanics, but none were interviewed.

In a statement, PBS spokeswoman Lea Sloan said the series honors all veterans of the war.

Burns and collaborator Lynn Novick showed some of the clips that were added on Hispanics and Native Americans to the American GI Forum conference in July and last month, and "the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive," Sloan said.