Embajada de la República de Corea en Mexico

Finding for Mexican Veterans, the Forgotten Heroes of the Korean War

Lieutenant Colonel YoonJoo Kim

Defense Attaché

Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Mexico

Do you know that some people in Mexico, on the other side of the earth from Korea, keep an eye out for news from Korea and tear up at the sight of the Korean flag? They are the veterans to whom the news from the small foreign country they guarded with their lives still ring true after 70 years. There is another reason that makes their heart race. Mexico is not in the official list of 16 countries that dispatched troops to the Korean War. Koreans were not aware of their sacrifice, and even Mexico did not know about their existence as there was no record of troops being sent. No one paid attention to their stories of the Korean War experience. They were the heroes of the Korean War, but watched 70 years go by forgotten. In June last year, during a conference as part of the 70^thcommemorationof the Korean War in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, the Ambassador of the Mexico in Republic of Korea shared with the public something that had not been known until then. Among 1.8 million American soldiers who took part in the Korean War, 10%, more than180 thousand were Hispanic. One hundred thousand of them were Mexican or Mexican-American, and there was even a unit made up of Mexican soldiers.

‘Are the Korean War veterans from Mexico still alive? They would be around 90 years old if they are.’ Once the realization dawned on us, we could not waste any more time. The Korean Embassy in Mexico first let the public know about the Mexican participation in the Korean War through local media, and set out on a search for Korean War veterans who are still living. Finally in July, I was able to meet Jose Villareal (90) who lives near Mexico City. It was the first confirmation of a Mexico hero who fought in the Korean War. Soon after that, in September, we met Roberto Barbosa (90) in Guadalajara city. In February this year, we met Alberto Fernandez (90) who lives in Sonora, which brings the count of the veterans up to three. 

Listening to the three veterans’ stories, we were able to get a glimpse of the sadness, sorrow, fear and pain of the ‘twenty-year-old’ along with the horrors of war that are still buried deep in their hearts after these long 70 years. We saw a young man standing at an American port waiting to leave for a war front out of blue without saying good bye to the parents in Mexico, the discrimination they probably suffered as Hispanics under the American flag, and a young man facing the fear of death that rushed to meet him the moment he set a foot on the Korean soil. They could not come up with words to describe the memories of losing their comrades during operations, sobbing for a long while. We felt remorse over not knowing about their pain all this time. Villareal has gathered his memories in a memoir titled “A Mexican’s Memories of Korea.’ He surely wished someone would remember them some day.   

The Embassy is awarding Ambassador for Peace Medal to these veterans. We are also planning to support the forming of a Korean War veteran association, andprovidetheir descendants with scholarship. We hope they remain a proud father and grandfather to their children and grandchildren, and an honorable Mexican warrior in the eyes of Koreans that they defended. We hope to bring them to Korea on one glorious day before it is too late, and that their memories will bring the two countries closer.