Saving Pvt. Fulano de Tal: Representations of Puerto Rican Soldiers in Television and Film

Abstract

In my search for some documentation that would indicate the way the Puerto Rican soldier has figured in the American public imaginary, I came upon a WWII editorial in Yank,¹ a US Army weekly propaganda magazine, published in 1944. Here, for a fleeting instant, the 55,000 Puerto Ricans who served in the war are recognized by Lou Stouten, a sergeant, who states:

In addition, Pvt. Fulano de Tal, Puerto Rico’s Pvt. John Doe, is a good soldier. He usually stands two or three inches shorter than his Americano brother. He is stocky, high-cheeked, muscular, bronzed and hardened by training in the tropical sun. He’s a crack shot and handy with the bayonet. He knows his jungle warfare […] Fulano loves his rice and beans, and to the great happiness of any soldado Americano who may mess with him, he eats these staples once or twice a day. He also loves to sing and dance, mostly rumba. […] The Puerto Rican GI has a real sense of humor but, like all Latinos, is proud and touchy about his honra of his beloved island. His blood is of the Spanish conquistadores, of the ancient Borinquen Indians and of various European nationalities that have visited his island since its discovery by Columbus in 1493. Spanish is still the language of most Puerto Ricans. But Fulano is a citizen of the U.S. by act of Congress, like all his people […] respects American efficiency, education and high standard of living, and he has a hankering to see the States after the war is over, just as the average soldado Americano down here plans to pay a return visit to La Isla del Encanto (the isle of Enchantment) someday. […] He [the Puerto Rican soldier] and his island have grown in maturity and stature by playing their part in this war, by their sacrifices in discomfort, hunger, and blood. (June 23, 1944, p. 9)