World War II

WORLD WARS
“Mom, we were talking about World War I and II in our history class. Were you alive during the wars?”
Grandma Lucy (Uncle) Frank Glenn Daddy (Charles Glenn Jacobs. Glenn)
C. Glenn & Lucy
“Thanks a lot Brent. I’m old, but not ancient. Even MY mother was not born ‘til after World War I. My dad was born in 1907, so he was younger than you when that war was fought. And, I remember my mother saying that when World War II started, he was really too old to enlist, he had two kids already, but he wanted to do his part for the war effort, and he enlisted as a Sea Bea or CB -- a navy construction worker.”
“So when were you born?”
“1949. World War II had been over for nearly five years. It’s funny though, I remember watching news shows and movies about the war when I was little and thinking, ‘why do they keep talking about this? It’s ancient history.’ Now I realize how time plays tricks on you and five or ten years for me now is nothing...except when I am away from my kids, then it a month is forever.”
“What was it like during the war time for your parents?”
“Railroads had become the main means of transportation. Cars were becoming more popular, but during the wars gas was rationed and rubber tires were really hard to get. Well, I guess during the Second World War, my parents had just been married a couple of years. They were living in Concho where the Candelaria brothers had married Mother’s two sisters and established ranches. Daddy had the Shell® trading post just at the entrance of town from St. Johns. Uncle Glenn was a baby when my dad joined the navy, and then Mother says he came home on leave one week and announced it was time for the next child, that would be your Uncle Duane.”
“I thought you said he had two kids already when he went.”
“The other one was my half sister, from an earlier marriage. Your granddad was actually married three times. Aunt Marie and I got really excited when we learned that our half sister had a daughter, because that would be our half niece, so together we thought we could make a whole aunt.”
“That sounds like some of our half step siblings once removed by a couple of divorces in the family.” Brent joked.
“Well, I’ve heard if you laid all the divorced people out end to end,” Mom started out seriously, “they’d be a lot more comfortable.”
“Well, if the jokes don’t improve, I’ve got American history to study for an exam.”
“What are you studying now, Brent?” Mom asked showing a distracted interest in his schoolwork.
“Well, duhh, Mom," Lynae interrupted, “Maybe World War I and II?”
“Again, about all I know about World Wars is what I learned from John Wayne movies. How did it effect New Mexico, Brent? Remember some of the displays at the museum just before we got back to Arizona in Deming, or was it Lords?”
“Where it was raining so hard you said you just couldn’t drive through it so we would have to visit just one more museum?” Brent laughed.
“Well that one turned out to be pretty good with the doll displays and dresses from the past.” Lynae defended.
“Remember the exhibits you liked, Brent, about the army clothes, medals, and weapons from the world wars.”
“And the street with the old cars and little shops like a real miniature town.”
“I remember now, there was like a beauty shop and dentist, and a bunch of others.”
“Remember how loud the rain was on that tin roof? I’m glad we weren’t trying to drive through it!” Mom reminded them.
“There was a lot of stuff about the World Wars at the railroad museum in Belen too,” Lynae remembered.
“Those little displays had authentic items typical of that era.”
Brent got more enthusiastic about the history assignment. “Just before World War I, there was a lot of trouble in Mexico itself, which is called the Mexican revolution.” After he related this bit of information, he turned to his reference book, an old coverless history text book he picked up at Deseret Industries and read aloud:
“After many years of friendly relations with Mexico, A dictator Aporfirio Diaz ruled from l877 to 1911.”[1]
“Gosh forty years, that sounds like Castro in Cuba!”
Brent agreed and continued to read:
“He favored the wealthy group in Mexico and permitted foreign capital to be invested in the mines oil fields and ranches of his country. Much of that capital came from the U.S. The Mexican people resented this, feeling that the natural resources of their land should be used for their own benefit. Conditions for the poor peon were getting no better; in agricultural country 85 per cent of the people working the soil owned no land.
“The Diaz government was overthrown in a revolution in 1911. Other revolutions and more dictators followed and our relations with Mexico were strained for several years. Twice American troops moved in.
“At one time we held Vera Curz for more than six months. On another occasion President Woodrow Wislon sent General John J. Pershing after a Mexican bandit, Pancho Villa, who had been making forays across the boarder into New Mexico. In 1916 when the Mexican government appeared to be protecting Villa, sentiment rose in the U.S. in favor of armed intervention. But war was avoided, for one reason, the U.S. feared getting drawn into the war going on in Europe (World War I) and dared not risk a war over here too.
“A new constitution in 1917 prevented anyone but Mexicans from owning the land and natural resources of the country. Holdings of foreign companies or individuals were not disturbed at that time, but native owned large states were divided among the poor farmers. Mexico was entirely within her rights in doing this, but foreign investors were alarmed.
“However as the foreigners were reassured their rights would not be violated, better relations were created. For example relations between the U.S. and Mexico improved so that in l938 when Mexican government did force all foreigners, including U.S. businessmen to sell their oil lands in Mexico, the incident was passed over without much trouble.”
“Well there was plenty of trouble between the Texas and New Mexico about that time. My Grandma Jacobs was not a happy camper when her little boy married a ‘Mexican’, and then when her baby daughter, my other Aunt Lola married secretly, Grandma blamed my mother because his last name was also Spanish. I’m glad I wasn’t around to see that!
“But that’s a story for a different time; I remember some letters I got in the 70's from a Bustamante cousin I never met. She was the oldest living in their generation, and Uncle Eliseo suggested I write to her to see if she had information that we had not been able to glean from his journals or from the microfilmed church records of the area. They’re in a folder in the genealogy file drawer.
Here's a web site about Mexico during World War I: http://explora.presidencia.gob.mx.pages__kids/
"Meanwhile in 1939 the European crisis culminated in the Second world War, in which the Axis countries, (Germany, Italy and Japan) fought the allies (England, France, the Soviet Union, the United States and other countries). For most of the war, Mexico was governed by Manuel Avila Camacho (1940 - 1946. As a result of this conflict, manufactured products became scarce in Mexico, since the industrialized countries were at war and industrial production was geared to satisfying military demands. Mexicans' demand for consumer goods served to promote the industrialization of our country.
During the war, the United States of America needed more workers, since a large part of its labor force had gone to fight. Mexico provided the US economy with workers and raw materials, a fact that also favored our economic growth. By the time the war ended, Mexico had started to become an urban and industrial nation. an intense literacy campaign also took place during the war years. Since this time, free and compulsory primary education has continued to expand. In 1940 there were two million students; nowadays this number has grown to around fourteen million. The Mexican Social Security Institute was also created during the war; this institution has given a large part of Mexico's population access to better medical services. Thanks to improved health care conditions, our population has continued to grow. In 1940, there were twenty million Mexicans; our population now stands at over ninety million.
[1] History of NM