One of the Few: A True Life Story of Miguel De La Torre Jr.

By Miguel Dela Torre JR

One of the Few details the life of Miguel De La Torre JR, who was born during The Great Depression. His story chronicles riveting tales of tragedy, suspense, humor, and heroism. Told in a series of short stories and anecdotes, Miguels life shares the common theme of the Mexican immigrant, who like many, loves this country and was honored to have served in the United States Marines Corp. Born in Brownsville Texas, Miguel adventures are personal accounts that were never before shared with his family or friends until now with hopes it will leave a legacy of a man who remained Semper Fi.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504912433

Miguel Dela Torre JR

One of the Few details the life of Miguel De La Torre JR, who was born during The Great Depression. His story chronicles riveting tales of tragedy, suspense, humor, and heroism. Told in a series of short stories and anecdotes, Miguel’s life shares the common theme of the Mexican immigrant, who like many, loves this country and was honored to have served in the United States Marines Corp. Born in Brownsville Texas, Miguel adventures are personal accounts that were never before shared with his family or friends until now with hopes it will leave a legacy of a man who remained “Semper Fi.”

Book preview

ONE OF THE FEW

A True Life Story of

MIGUEL DE LA TORRE JR.

Miguel Dela Torre, JR

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AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Phone: [phone]

© 2015 Miguel Dela Torre, JR. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/10/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-1245-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-1243-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015907824

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 EARLY YEARS

The Beginning

Journey to the USA

An Emergency Trip to Mom’s Hometown

The Worst Still to Come

Why? Why? Why?

Chapter 2 GROWING UP

School On and Off Again

Becoming a Cotton Picker

The Kidnapping

Moving to Corpus Christi

Back to the Cotton Fields

California Here I Come

Almost Buried Alive

The Fight with El Violin

My Dubious Boxing Venture

Chapter 3 MY MILITARY CAREER

The Beginning of a Military Career

What the Hell did I get Myself Into?

On Our Way to Korea

A Joyful Event: Change of Orders

My First Deed to the Unit

New Duty Station

Back to the Old Routine

A Mail Carrier

Back to the Marine Corps

A Brig Guard (Prison Guard)

Tijuana Raider

Time to get Married?

Slept with a Cobra

Fighting the Enemy

Goodbye Papasan

I’m a Father!

Off to School in Washington, D.C

Back to Vietnam

Our CO Gets Blown Up

On Vacation to the United States

Kansas City Here I Come

Back to where it all started: The Marine Corps Recruit Depot

To Okinawa, Japan One More Time

Chapter 4 A JOYFUL CHANGE IN LIFE

The Beginning of a New Career

Retirement

My Personal Thoughts: War is Hell; those who take the Initiative of it are the devils

Epilogue

INTRODUCTION

Who are we? Where did we come from? Who were our grandparents? These are some of the questions I have been often asked by my children. Inquiries such as these began long ago, before I had any children. I have always wondered and have asked myself the same questions. Who am I?

In this book I will try to describe and relay facts about myself, my life, and all that I can remember. Including what I know about my biological and my adopted relatives. I will start from the time I was born, through my teenage years, my working experiences as an adult, the 24 years I spent in the United States Marine Corps, the 18 years I worked at Southwestern College, my retirement, and for privacy purposes I just briefly mention my love ones. I will try to recall and write all my joyful times as well as some tragedies, which includes the loss of my parents and some combat tragedies I experienced in the Vietnam War. At the end of this book I have included some of my personal opinions about particular subjects such as religion, politics, racism or other similar subjects. I hope you enjoy reading it.

CHAPTER 1

EARLY YEARS

The Beginning

The beginning of an honest, truthful, righteous, lawful, faithful, just, loyal, loving, and hardworking man… well, most of the time!

To understand how I happened to enter this world, we have to go back a couple of years before I was born to The Great Depression, a period (1929-1941) in which the economy in the United States was in severe decline. Millions of people were out of work. The Great Depression brought hardship and suffering to millions of Americans. It turned people’s lives into a grim struggle for survival marked by homelessness and hunger. This had a global effect, including European countries, and of course Mexico was also affected. However, in Mexico, people reacted a little differently than in other countries. They reacted with violence and fought each other for power. Some political leaders had to go under cover, hiding for their lives. My father Miguel De La Torre was one of those people who had to go into hiding. For what reason did he hide? I don’t know. Did he play a role in the government? I don’t know. I was told he had several hand weapons. Was he a hit man? I don’t know. But I do know that he went into hiding and traveled from the Port of Veracruz to Tuxpan, Veracruz, a small town back then, which is located about 150 miles north of Veracruz along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Tuxpan was my mother’s home town. I understand she was born and raised there. That is where she met my father. My mother was very young. She must have been fifteen years old. My father was much older. In my birth certificate he was registered as being twenty years old, however he was not present during my birth nor when I was registered, therefore his age was guessed. I was told he must have really been about thirty something years old. Not too many people met my father. In fact, the only person that talked about him was my uncle Manuel Mora El Capitan. Very few people met my mother as well. Both my parents lived together with my maternal grandmother and two of my mother’s brothers, Manuel and Martin Mora. My mother’s name was Rita Ayala. Her mother’s name was Josefa Salinas. According to my uncle Manuel, my father also had family in Veracruz. I never did find out any information such as names or how many there were in his family.

My uncle Manuel El Capitan used to tell a story about a movie that was filmed in Tuxpan, which he claimed to have played a role in. Someone he told this to said they actually had seen the film and that the only person in that movie that fit my uncle’s description was a midget whom they called Captain. So my uncle picked the nick-name, El Capitan meaning Captain.

Journey to the USA

My parents lived in Tuxpan only for a short while before I was born. One day my father had visitors. A couple of men came to see him from Veracruz. After the men left, my father said to my mother, Let’s pack up. We’ve got to get out of here. This is when the journey began to the USA. My mother was already pregnant with me. So my mother, my father, and my uncle Manuel (who was just about 10 years old) started to pack up. My grandmother and my mother’s younger brother Martin stayed behind. It must have been around April, 1933 when my parents headed for Texas.

After arriving in Brownsville, Texas, my mother went to work as a house keeper for an old lady named Rita Medina. My father and Uncle Manuel got a job in an automobile repair shop. Sometimes they worked out in the fields of agriculture. Doña Rita Medina was an old lady with a big family. Most of the family had moved out of her home. My mother and Doña Rita got along really well; perhaps because they were both named Rita.

All of this went on fine for a while until one day my father said to my mother, I have to go back to Veracruz and left. He left my mother pregnant and alone. Well, except for my uncle Manuel who was still just a kid. I was born September 5, 1933 in the house of Doña Rita. At that time Mexican women didn’t go to the hospital to have a baby. If they were lucky they would be seen by a Partera, a woman that knew how to deliver babies or what we know as a midwife. I was delivered by a partera. My mother never heard from my father again. Doña Rita was the one that took care of my mother after I was born.

My mother grew desperate waiting for my father’s return. Sometime after four or five years, my mother realized that my father wasn’t coming back. She got together with a man named Bartolo Sanchez. I was too young to understand what was going on. I do remember this fellow because I was very jealous of him. Watching him near my mother was hard. I loved my mother very much and couldn’t stand another man in our lives. Now, I only remember my mother like a sweet dream.

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*The only image I still have of my mom, in my mind.

An Emergency Trip to Mom’s Hometown

When I was about five or six years old, a terrible thing had happened. My mother got word that her mother was very sick. So my mother made the decision to go back to see her mother. Suddenly, we all left; my mother, my uncle (who by then was sixteen or seventeen years old), Bartolo, and me. It seemed like it took forever