Nuestro
Ballad of An Unsung Hero
December 1984
by Lorena M. Parlee
There are moments in history when the life of one person is greater than that of the individual. Such is the story of Pedro Gonzalez, an 89 year-old resident of San Ysidro, California.
From the years he served as Pancho Villa's telegraph operator in the Mexican Revolution to his unprecedented rise to fame as a singer and radio announcer in Los Angeles, he was in the forefront of the major changes of the century. Pedro's life story symbolizes the experiences of people of Mexican descent in twentieth century America.
For his generation and those to follow, Pedro became a folk hero. The events of his life have been immortalized in two corridos, or popular ballads, a novel, a detective series, a play, countless newspaper articles over the decades, a mural in San Diego's Chicano Park and an award-winning television documentary, Ballad of an Unsung Hero, to be aired nationally on PBS this month (December 18; check local listing).
Like most Mexicans of his generation, Pedro's early years were engulfed by the Mexican Revolution. At the age of 13, Pedro left school to be a telegraph apprentice on the Mexican railroads. Two years later, in 1910, he grabbed his telegraph key and rifle and rode off with Pancho Villa. For the next seven years he served as Villa's telegraph operator, gathering intelligence information and relaying messages for the famous revolutionary general.
At one point Pedro and a small contingent of Villa's soldiers were captured by enemy troops near Chihuahua, Mexico. A tribunal of war immediately sentenced Pedro to die before a firing squad. In the moment that his would-be executioners raised their rifles and took aim, the townspeople, all Villa sympathizers, began to throw rocks at the soldiers. A group of schoolgirls ran out and stood between Pedro and the firing squad, saving his life.
Two years later at a friend's house in El Paso, Texas, Pedro met a beautiful young woman, Maria Salcido. As they talked, he discovered that she was one of the girls who had earlier saved his life. Within three months, they were married and became lifelong companions.
In 1924 Pedro moved his family north to the United States, joining nearly one million Mexicans who had left their homeland, seeking jobs, political exile or relief from the ravages of war-torn Mexico. In the United States the wartime effort during World War and the booming economy of the 1920s further encouraged this large exodus from Mexico. Few barriers were erected at the border for the much-desired Mexican workers.
At first, like most of his compatriots, Pedro could only find work as a manual laborer in the United States, despite his experience as a telegraph operator. However, always on the lookout for new opportunities, Pedro answered a newspaper ad for Spanish-speaking singers. He was hired to record songs in Spanish for Columbia, Victor, Okeh and other recording corn- panics in Los Angeles that were rapidly expanding into the growing Latino market.
Pedro quickly grasped the significance of the new form of communication sweeping the country and soon pushed his way into radio. In 1928 the tall, handsome, 32 year-old singer from Chihuahua, Mexico, became the first Spanish-speaking radio broadcaster in Los Angeles.
A year later, Pedro inaugurated an early morning music program dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Mexican Americans up at the crack of dawn to go to work in the canneries, factories and fields. Throughout the Southwest, Spanish-speaking households tuned in their radios daily to listen to his show broadcast live from the Hidalgo Theater in downtown Los Angeles from 4 to 6 a.m.
Pedro's rise to fame was unprecedented in the era before mass media. Everywhere he went, enthusiastic, screaming fans pursued him. Each morning at 3:30, crowds or people pushed and shoved, trying to get into the Hidalgo Theater to see his show. Letters from as far away as El Paso, Texas, flooded the radio station as listeners pledged undying affection to their new idol.
His popularity encouraged other Spanish-speaking announcers to begin their own programs, but none came close to Pedro's fame. Gonzalez' show was a mixture of dedications, commentaries, advertisements and live music by Pedro and his famous singing group, Los Madrugadores (The Early Birds).
For the Mexican community Pedro's show offered continuity by perpetuating and glorifying Mexican music, traditions and language in the face of increasing pressures to "Americanize." When they were not on the air, Pedro and the Madrugadores made countless personal appearances throughout Southern California and recorded over 100 songs, many of them Pedro's own compositions.
By 1930 Pedro formed the Club Ideal-Circulo Artistico de Radio for his radio listeners. Thousands of fans joined by sending 25 cents a month, which entitled them to photographs and song books and gave them preference on dedication requests. By 1931 Pedro's show was on its way to becoming the first listener-sponsored radio program in Los Angeles. As his popularity rose. he also began to market products using the Madrugadores' name and image and advertising them on his radio show. Under the brand name of "Los Madrugadores" and later "El Amo," Pedro sold coffee, chocolate, spices and other culinary products used primarily in Mexican cooking. All articles included his photograph and the emblem of the Club Ideal.
Pedro's popularity went beyond the Spanish-speaking population. He and the Madrugadores were favorites at parties given by Los Angeles city officials, the county sheriff's department and the American Legion. But his frank commentaries on the radio, his advocacy of the rights of Mexicans and Mexican Americans and his success in marketing his own products in the Latino market began to create enemies.
As the impact of the Great Depression hit Los Angeles, city officials became uneasy over the growing number of Mexicans in their city. Claiming the Mexicans increased the numbers of unemployed and welfare recipients, they began deporting thousands of Spanish-speaking residents, many of whom were, in fact, United States citizens.
A few city officials expressed fear over Pedro's popularity and influence in the Mexican community and decided to get him off the air. After several attempts of dubious legality, the district attorney and the juvenile authorities stooped to framing him. They produced a young fan who accused Pedro of raping her.
The trial, marked by controversy and anti-Mexican senti ment, caught the instant attention of the media. Officials could not find a courtroom large enough for the hundreds of people who came to see the Mexican community's flamboyant idol. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Pedro was found guilty on March 31,1934, and sentenced to 50 years in San Quentin State Prison.
Unbeknownst to Pedro, eight months after he was jailed, the alleged victim confessed to perjury, but the judge dismissed the new evidence on a legal technicality. Adamant about not admitting guilt for a crime he did not commit, Pedro refused all offers of probation.
With Pedro in prison, his radio programs went off the air despite the efforts of his wife to keep them going. Defense committees sprang up throughout the Southwest to collect funds on his behalf. They gathered 300,000 signatures to pressure the state governor for his release. Several Mexican foreign service officials and former presidents joined in the effort. Finally, after six long years, in December, 1940, Pedro received parole on the condition that he be immediately deported to Mexico.
Although the harsh conditions in prison stripped Pedro of some of his flamboyance, they did not break his spirit. Once paroled, Pedro lost little time in getting on the air again. He broadcast from Tijuana where he charmed fans in the border region and Southern California for the next 30 years.
Awarded lands by the Mexican government for his services in the Mexican Revolution, he opened the first hotel in Tijuana and began several land development projects in downtown Tijuana. In the late 1960s Tijuana officials began to harrass Pedro after he used his radio program to denounce local and state officials for corruption and fraud. Pedro divided his considerable land holdings among needy families in Tijuana and once again crossed into the United States where he settled in San Ysidro, California.
After 47 years of self-imposed silence, Pedro, in 1981, decided to reveal the story of his life. He could not have known that the making of Ballad of An Unsung Hero would lead to the discovery of court records voiding the charges against him and allowing pardon procedures to begin.
As painful as some of his memories were, Pedro decided to tell his life story, because he believes that "people today need to understand the importance of seeking justice for everyone. Those people who have been silent," he admonishes, "must speak out and stand up for their beliefs so that others might learn and everyone can live in harmony. Life is too short for anything else. Otherwise, it's like the telegraph. Until you understand what the little clicking noises mean, you are afraid and distrustful of what it's saying."
A Unique Effort
Ballad of An Unsung Hero is a co-production of KPBS-TV, Public Television in San Diego, and Cinewest Products of San Diego. It represents a unique cooperative effort between filmmakers, scholars and the Latino community in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Rare historical footage, hundreds of old photographs and original records of the music of the era were located to enhance the dynamic interviews with Pedro S. Gonzalez and his wife, Maria.
Producer for the program is Paul Espinosa, KPBS-TV; Director Isaac Artenstein, Cinewest Productions; and Associate Producer Lorena Parlee, professor of Mexican and Central American History at the University of California, Irvine.
Julio Medina narrates this exciting program which will be broadcast Tuesday, December 18, over the PBS network (check local listing).
Ballad of An Unsung Hero has garnered a number of prestigious awards, including a San Diego Emmy for Best Documentary in 1983; the 1983 Golden Mike Award for Best Documentary from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California, a Blue Ribbon at New York's American Film Festival and a CINE Golden Eagle.