Tito Melara |
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Preface Due to Tito’s distance from Los Angeles, this interview was conducted via Skype. Before beginning the interview, Tito asked if the interviewers would like to hear a song, and when he received a positive response, he chose to sing something that he had learned in his youth, ‘La Malagueña’. A Song from El Salvador La Malagueña Ellos me quieren mirar Pero si tu no los dejas Pero si tu no los dejas Ni siquiera parader “Your eyes want to look at me, but you won’t let them, you won’t let them, you won’t even blink.” We Had to Protect Our Freedom Interviewer: Do you want to tell us about, when you first got to Viet Nam, what your kind of experience was? Or you can tell us about your training before and then your transition into actually going to Viet Nam. Tito: Well, um, of course, everybody that joined the military, they have to go through basic training. In basic training, they teach you everything there is to know concerning your ability to use any arms. You know, your rifle, your gun, your bayonet, whatever there is, because you know they teach you how to protect against the enemy. In case, you know, you deploy to a war zone. So they teach you all that, and you’ve got to learn. You better learn fast, because you never know when you are going to use whatever you are taught to do. You are actually protecting yourself and protecting your fellow soldiers. Interviewer: What was your view of the war? What did you think about having to fight against the Vietnamese when you were there? Tito: Good question, I never thought about that before, myself. All I know is that I had work to do. I had an assignment to do, and that was to serve our military active years, which is 2 years with the Army. And that’s all I knew concerning my general view of it. You know, I had to put in 2 years of active duty in the service. Whether it was the Army, Navy, Marines… whatever, but that was my assignment then in my life, at that point. Sort of like my citizenship obligation, even though I wasn’t a citizen yet. But I felt that I was contributing to keep our way of freedom. Fighting for our freedom. Freedom is not free. We have to protect our freedom, and our military is part of that part that we had to depend upon, so we don’t get overwhelmed by other ideologies, that kind of thing. Our country, our way of life, we have freedom of expression. We have freedom of worship, whatever we want to worship, whether it’s our lord Jesus Christ, or whatever people want to worship. This is part of our military to protect that part of our lives, I think.
Object Description
Profile of | Tito Melara |
Title | An Immigrant's Experience in Viet Nam |
Profile bio | Tito Melara was born in El Salvador on January 4th, 1945. In the midst of 1960's liberation conflicts in El Salvador, Tito decided to move to the United States to pursue an education. During the process of his immigration to the United States in 1965, he was served with a draft notice. He did not yet speak English, and experienced great difficulty integrating into American culture. Immediately prior to his transfer to Basic Training, he married his love, Virginia, also adopting her 12 children. In October of 1968, he deployed to Viet Nam. During his time overseas, Tito was stationed in Ben Hoa, Phu-Bai, and Hue. He says that the one thing that sustained him in absence of his family was the ability to read and write letters. In 1969, Tito returned to the United states. Since his deployment in Viet Nam, he has experienced numerous health issues related to the war, including an almost-fatal bout with cancer. He has yet to find resolution with what happened during the war, but leads a very happy life in Fields Landing, California. |
Profiler bio | Christopher Orenic and Danielle Then are USC students participating in the research project via an American War in Viet Nam course. |
Subject |
Vietnam Vietnam War draft citizen VA cook |
Profiled by | Orenic, Christopher; Then, Danielle |
Profile date | 2014-02-15 |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Huế; Hue; Fields Landing |
Geographic subject (county) | Humboldt |
Geographic subject (state) | California |
Geographic subject (country) | El Salvador; Vietnam, USA |
Coverage date | 1965 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/tito-melara/ |
Type |
images video |
Format | 1 image; 4 video files (00:14:08); 3 transcripts |
Language |
English Spanish |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
Filename | melaratito |
Description
Profile of | Tito Melara |
Title | Preface |
Format | 1 transcript, 2p. |
Filename | melaratito-vid1_tr1.pdf |
Full text | Preface Due to Tito’s distance from Los Angeles, this interview was conducted via Skype. Before beginning the interview, Tito asked if the interviewers would like to hear a song, and when he received a positive response, he chose to sing something that he had learned in his youth, ‘La Malagueña’. A Song from El Salvador La Malagueña Ellos me quieren mirar Pero si tu no los dejas Pero si tu no los dejas Ni siquiera parader “Your eyes want to look at me, but you won’t let them, you won’t let them, you won’t even blink.” We Had to Protect Our Freedom Interviewer: Do you want to tell us about, when you first got to Viet Nam, what your kind of experience was? Or you can tell us about your training before and then your transition into actually going to Viet Nam. Tito: Well, um, of course, everybody that joined the military, they have to go through basic training. In basic training, they teach you everything there is to know concerning your ability to use any arms. You know, your rifle, your gun, your bayonet, whatever there is, because you know they teach you how to protect against the enemy. In case, you know, you deploy to a war zone. So they teach you all that, and you’ve got to learn. You better learn fast, because you never know when you are going to use whatever you are taught to do. You are actually protecting yourself and protecting your fellow soldiers. Interviewer: What was your view of the war? What did you think about having to fight against the Vietnamese when you were there? Tito: Good question, I never thought about that before, myself. All I know is that I had work to do. I had an assignment to do, and that was to serve our military active years, which is 2 years with the Army. And that’s all I knew concerning my general view of it. You know, I had to put in 2 years of active duty in the service. Whether it was the Army, Navy, Marines… whatever, but that was my assignment then in my life, at that point. Sort of like my citizenship obligation, even though I wasn’t a citizen yet. But I felt that I was contributing to keep our way of freedom. Fighting for our freedom. Freedom is not free. We have to protect our freedom, and our military is part of that part that we had to depend upon, so we don’t get overwhelmed by other ideologies, that kind of thing. Our country, our way of life, we have freedom of expression. We have freedom of worship, whatever we want to worship, whether it’s our lord Jesus Christ, or whatever people want to worship. This is part of our military to protect that part of our lives, I think. |
Archival file | Volume3/melaratito-vid1_tr1.pdf |