We won’t allow the Benito Juárez Squadron to disappear into history
Monday, February 18th, 2013We won’t allow the Benito Juarez Squadron to disappear into history with the likes of Elaine Ayala and Valerie Martinez.
Benito Juárez Squadron women described as “pretty San Antonians” and “proverbial bees as they work for victory”: Doris V. Gillis, (from left) Manuela Martinez, Lenore Martinez, Mercedes Ledesma, Minnie Villarreal and Faustina Hernandez. Photo: San Antonio Express File Photo
Very grateful Martinez dug a little deeper with regard to the Benito Juarez Squadron.
Ayala: Benito Juárez Squadron might disappear into history
Valerie A. Martinez was reading historian Leisa Meyer‘s book, “Creating G.I. Jane,” about the inception of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II, when she first learned of the Benito Juárez Squadron.
It was a line in a book that might as well have been a lightning rod.
It sparked the young scholar’s quest to examine the Mexican American WACs unit inducted at Municipal Auditorium in the spring of 1944.
Apparently, it was quite a show.
