Thursday, October 6, 1983
by Don Freeman
FOR AN EXTRAORDINARY slice of history and a fascinating saga of one
man's adventurous existence over eight decades, I direct you to "Ballad of an Unsung
Hero," scheduled tonight at 8:30 on channel 15. It is narrated in English by actor
Julio Medina but it is a bilingual documentary, with the others speaking Spanish,
accompanied by Engish subtitles.
The focus is on Pedro S. Gonzalez, who is a robust 88 and lives in San
Ysidro and who counts in his memories the time, during the Mexican Revolution, that he was
a telegraph operator for Pancho Villa himself. There are marvelous old photoraphs and
scratchy films that magically evoke the period. Looking at the faces of strength and
purpose in these pictures from a time of national upheaval, you are gripped with the
feeling that they could be Orozco's works of art given bold and exuberant lift.
Pedro Gonzalez lives with his wife, Maria, and their 66 years of
marriage have given them 84 descendants. Their first encounter occurred in the revolution
when Pedro was surrounded by enemy troops and he was about to be executed.
"To save his life," the narrator tells us, "Maria and
several other schoolchildren flew out and stood between Pedro and the firing squad."
Now Pedro Gonzalez picks up the narrative: "Three years later, I
accidentally met her at a party. Her mother introduced us, 'This is my daughter. She is
one of the girls that stood between you and the soldiers who were going to execute you'...
The music played and we danced."
The music played and we danced. And he proposed. And three
months later they were married.
There were the years from 1910 and 1917 when Pedro's life was engulfed
by the revolution and his service to the revolutionary cause of the man who would become a
legend, Pancho Villa. In time Pedro Gonzalez migrated north to Los Angeles. He worked on
the docks and then he became a professional singer on radio and in recordings. He began to
write hit songs in Spanish which were recorded on the major labels, on Columbia and
Victor. Pedro Gonzalez was a tremendous star.
As the narrator tells us, the singing star used his radio program and
his music to protest the discrimination of the Unit. "By 1933," the narrator
relates, "Pedro's immense popularity was perceived as a threat to the Anglo
establishment of Los Angeles." There followed a shameful and ugly chapter in Los
Angeles race relations.
I think you will want to see this one and learn more about Pedro J.
Gonzalez of San Ysidro and Mexico's past.