Hero Street U.S.A.
AS NAMED IN MAY 1967
Before it was renamed Hero Street USA in May 1967 by the mayor, and before a city park was built adjacent to that one-and-a-half-block-long path and dedicated in October 1971, it was simply called Second Street.
Second Street was on the west side of Silvis, Illinois, a Mississippi river town. It was little more than an unpaved muddy stretch between Honey Creek and Billy Goat Hill. But it was the home of eight American soldiers of Mexican descent who died in World War II and the Korean conflict of the early fifties. And as time clocked by, it became the proud street where more than one hundred and ten men and women had lived who served the United States of America. Recently, the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C., reported that there is no street of similar size where so many men and women left home in order to join the Armed Forces—eighty-four soldiers from twenty-six families who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
The street is alive with familia, courage, and memory.
The original Mexicans who settled in Silvis migrated from Guanajuato in the late 1920s and ’30s in search of work. The Rock Island Railroad Line, needing labor nearby for track maintenance, set aside rent and tax-free plots of land with boxcar units as shift houses for cheap labor. But complaints were voiced regarding Mexicans living in rent-free boxcars.
So the Mexican community resettled in an unwanted area set aside for them by city officials. The boxcars were loaded on flatbed trailers and trucked over to their new location on an unpaved street—Second Street.
Twenty-two families with axes and machetes cleared the field and built their houses on both sides of Second Street. The migrant Mexicanos soon established Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church and the Corporación Mexican Band.
As WWII began, the younger generation of Second Street joined the Navy, Marines, Air Corps, and the Army—forty-five fought in WWII and at least a dozen more in Korea. Eight never returned: Peter Masias, Tony Pompa, Claro Soliz, the Sandoval brothers—Frank and Joseph—Joseph Gomez, William Sandoval, and Johnny Munos.
The matriarch of Hero Street, Mrs. Angelina Sandoval, recalled her three sons who perished in the wars: “They didn’t complain about going. This was their country, and they were willing to die for it.” Frank Sandoval, the best slingshot shooter on Billy Goat Hill, was killed in Burma. Joseph Sandoval was overrun by Nazis. Santiago Sandoval made it home after being wounded in Korea, then, five weeks later, died in a car crash. Tony Pompa lied about his age to get into the Army Air Corps and flew tail gunner in a bomber that went down.
The unequal treatment continued for the Mexican American soldiers who came home to Second Street after the war. For decades they were unwelcome at the original Silvis Veterans of Foreign Wars post, so they had to start their own meeting hall to hold ceremonies for Veterans Day. Determined that the war heroes would not be forgotten, some Mexican Americans from the town helped register people who would vote for supporters on the City Council. Joe Terronez, who later became the mayor of Silvis, proposed legislation that finally passed to pave Second Street and rename it Hero Street in 1967.
Guadalupe “Sonny” Soliz, whose uncle Claro Soliz died in Belgium in WWII, began to paint a series of thirteen watercolors depicting his street and its heroes. It took decades, but in 1993 the idea was born to organize with others to form the Hero Street Memorial Committee. Sonny became its chairman.
As planned, the monument would have the sculpted faces of the eight Hero Street soldiers cast in bronze. Steps would lead up from this level to a sculpture of a helmet hung with dog tags and topped with an M1 Garand rifle, a U.S. flag, and an eagle with outspread wings.
This monument was to be the main feature of a remodeled Hero Street Park. On November 12, 1997, the groundbreaking ceremonies began with a speech given by Louis Caldera, who became the Secretary of the Army. The monument arrived in Silvis on November 8, 2006—just in time for Veterans Day.
It commemorates the hometown heroes and the Medals of Honor that Latinas and Latinos throughout the nation have won in service of their country.