Wednesday, November 27

'Don't remove the veterans' monument'

Edward Daniel Morín recalls the story of his father, Raúl Morín, a veteran of World War II, who upon returning from the war tried to buy a house in the city of Alhambra but was not allowed to because he was Mexican.

Instead of being discouraged, her parents became activists for political and community affairs. This is how Raúl became a founding member of the Legion Post 804 for the veterans of East Los Angeles.

In the years 40’s, Mr. Raúl noticed an area full of weeds and weeds in that area. He envisioned it as a tribute to Mexican-American, Chicano and Mexican war veterans, including the undocumented.

“At that time that land did not belong to the city or the county. It was no man’s land,” Edward said on Tuesday.

“But my father said, ‘We should have a memorial area,’ so he asked the Los Angeles City Council for permission to erect a veterans memorial ”.

After raising money from the private sector and the East Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, in 1946 the monument was created in honor of veterans of Mexican descent from World War II.

Twenty years later, and after the death of Mr. Raúl, the community of East Los Angeles erected a second monument to name the park as Raúl Morín Square. For many years the area is also commonly known as The Five Points and the park divided by Indiana Street, has two areas in honor of veterans to honor ex-combatants, later including those who left East Angeleno and participated in the Wars. from Korea and Vietnam.

Now a group of concerned veterans and residents are protesting the possibility that all this history could disappear thanks to a plan that began years ago without public notice.

Martha Jiménez, a community activist, said that the monuments represent the sacrifice and blood of the soldiers.

“The city of Los Angeles, without taking into account the community, to the task that in the dark, under the leadership of former councilor José Huizar, of not asking the community how they want it,” he said.

“Now we have a problem because they want to position a tree in the middle of where the monuments are”.

They refer to a roundabout that is planned to be built and they indicate that it would include the change of the monument dedicated to the Mexicans that is titled “All Wars Memorial” dedicated to all the soldiers and all the past wars.

“It bothers me that want to do this. It is offensive to me and my family because I am also a war veteran. I was injured in Vietnam. I have a Purple heart”, said Edward.

He indicated that changing the name will be like slapping an entire community and veterans since the monument honors ex-combatants.

“We are not trying to honor war. If anyone has been to war, they know it’s horrible. We want to honor veterans,” Murillo stressed.

The activists and veterans said they have tried to contact the area councilor, Kevin de León, to get a response, but have not received them.

Sofía Quiñonez, a member of the Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles Coalition called the project “a crime”. He said that when the former councilman began holding meetings to build the roundabout, he assured them that it would no longer happen because there was no money. However, it kept going and the activists found out about it through a published article.

In response to the accusations, Pete Brown, director of communications for Councilman Kevin de León, said that the intersection of Los Cinco Puntos that includes Cesar Chávez, Lorena and Indiana streets needs to be rebuilt to make them safer.

Brown said the current crossing lacks proper crossings making it unsafe for pedestrians and vehicles navigating through the intersection.

For years it was looking for a way to finance the remodeling project and it has finally been achieved.

“We now have about $20 million for these improvements,” said Brown.

He added that they have been in constant communication with the local group of Veterans of Foreign Wars to agree on the most appropriate place to locate the existing monuments within the new project design.

“They will be on the south side of the project that is being designed to allow veterans to close off the area for events so I can prune We honor them,” said Brown.

“So Memorial Day, Veterans Day, all of them will be able to better honor our veterans, and it will be a much nicer place.”

Brown assured that the names of the monuments will not be changed nor will the existing monuments be removed. However, it accepted that they have not met with the next of kin of Mr. Raúl Morín.