September 25, 1998
Houston, Texas — To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the American G.I. Forum, a landmark new book from prestigious U.S. Hispanic publisher Arte Público Press and California author Henry A. J. Ramos, titled The American GI Forum: In Pursuit of the Dream, 1948-1983, will be released to the public at the Forum's Third Annual Salute to Hispanic Veterans reception, honoring United States Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, on Sunday, September 20 from 7 pm to 9 pm in the Crystal Ballroom of the McNair Officers Club in Washington, D.C.
Ramos's milestone book captures the Forum's most significant accomplishments from its founding through the close of Reagan's first term. It is only the second book written about this illustrious —but to most Americans largely unknown— group. (The first, written by historian Carl Allsup and published by the University of Texas Press in 1982, is now out of print.)
The American GI Forum is the nation's oldest and largest Hispanic veterans civil rights organization, comprising more than 500 chapters and a membership base of more than 100,000 individuals. Founded in 1948 in Corpus Christi, Texas by the late Dr. Hector P. García (awarded the presidential medal of freedom by Ronald Reagan), the GI Forum's contributions to Hispanic civil rights have been seminal.
Especially significant aspects of the Forum's legacy were its early successes in mobilizing large numbers of working-class Hispanic families in peaceful community action, its effective appeal to American patriotism (given the organization's veteran base), and its consequent ability to make headway even during the era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, which unnverved many "progressive" organizations in the 1950s.
"In its essence, this was the struggle of a people in pursuit of the American dream," writes Ramos. "In quest of this dream, the GI Forum emerged as a guiding light by which its members and the broader society were visibly moved."
In a foreword, National Council of La Raza president Raúl Yzaguirre (a former GI Forum youth leader) writes: "Only those who actually lived during the Forum's early years can fully appreciate how progressive and risky the organization's work was... But the organization's veterans and family base, its staunch commitment to established American ideals, and its successful use of patriotic symbols and religious rituals all helped to establish some political space for Hispanic activism during these early years. In many cases and communities, the Forum constituted the only viable community mechanism through which meaningful change could be advocated absent violent reprisal and outright mainstream rejection."
The American GI Forum: In Pursuit of the Dream, 1948-1983, produced with funding from the Ford Foundation, provides timely and important insights on the occasion of the Forum's fiftieth anniversary. At a time of renewed public discussion of domestic-policy issues such as immigration, bilingual education, and affirmative action, the book reminds us of America's historic civil-rights struggle.
The Third Annual Salute to Hispanic Veterans is sponsored, in part, by Levi Strauss & Company, the international apparel firm and maker of the popular 501 jeans. The San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Company, together with its grant-making foundation, is a long-time benefactor of Hispanic community causes.
Arte Público Press is the largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by U.S. Hispanic authors. Together with its imprint for children, Piñata Books, and its Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project, Arte Público Press provides the most widely recognized showcase for Hispanic literary arts and creativity.
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