Hero Street defines American patriotism
As Americans celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday with parades, speeches, fireworks and other patriotic traditions, much attention will focus on familiar symbols of our history — monuments, battlefields, historic landmarks.
Yet Independence Day also lets us reflect on lesser-known stories of people and places that illuminate the ideals on which our nation was founded.
One such place is Hero Street, a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River and Interstate Highway 80 in Silvis, Illinois, part of the Quad Cities.
MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS came to Silvis at the turn of the 20th century to live and work in the blue-collar, calloused-hands town. Jobs at the Rock Island Railroad drew them. They arrived seeking stability in the Heartland of America amid the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution back home.
These newcomers’ stories, like those before them from Europe, Africa or Asia, offer important and timely reminders about the principles proclaimed in 1776 and the vital role immigrants played in building and defending our nation.
Their contributions resonate today — reminding us that debates about immigration and belonging hardly are new in the United States and often are misguided.
These Mexican immigrants, like generations of other newcomers to our nation, came in search of better opportunities for their families and a place to earn a living.
THE QUAD CITIES in the early 1900s had its problems. Housing was so expensive and difficult to find that some of these new families lived in discarded railroad boxcars.
In time, though, when they saved enough for modest houses, these families moved up the hill from along the Rock Island’s mainline tracks and repair shops and established a tight-knit little neighborhood around a stub of a street.
That settlement on a dead-end section of Second Street was only a block and a half long. But today, everyone calls the stub Hero Street.
The name change memorializes the stories written by families with names like Sandoval, Munoz and Gomez. Those stories deserve telling and retelling for generations to come around the Fourth of July.
DURING WORLD WAR II, the Korean War and later conflicts, the young men from Silvis enlisted in remarkable numbers when their America needed them. Their service came at a terrible price, though, just as it did for many other families across our nation.
Eight young men from Silvis’ immigrant neighborhood lost their lives in combat during World War II and the Korean War. A small park next to Hero Street provides a daily reminder of those eight boys: Peter Macias, Tony Pompa, Frank Sandoval, Joe Sandoval, Willie Sandoval, Clark Solis, Johnny Munoz and Joseph Gomez.
The irony of their service and their sacrifice should not be ignored in the Heartland or across the United States.
The parents of the Hero Street boys encountered barriers in housing, employment and civic life when they arrived in America. But that treatment did not poison their sons, who were determined to serve their country and make their families proud.
After the wars, city leaders in Silvis decided to recognize the neighborhood and the sacrifice of so many from so few families. Thus, Second Street officially became Hero Street.
THE STREET and its prominence matter because they stand at the intersection of immigration, patriotism and sacrifice. The Hero Street legacy challenges any narrow definitions of what it means to be American.
Aristocrats and blue bloods did not live in those simple houses in Silvis. The residents had neither wealth nor influence. Many spoke Spanish at home and maintained strong cultural ties to Mexico.
But when the United States went to war, these young men turned out.
IN REMEMBERING Hero Street, we can affirm that the American identity is not defined just by lives lived long or through the attainment of material gain. Our national identity includes the immigrants and their descendants who embraced the ideals and values that set the United States apart.
President Ronald Reagan aptly described this in his farewell address in 1989. He said the United States was “a shining city on a hill” that stands as a beacon for freedom-loving people around the world.
As Americans mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, Hero Street gives proof that our greatness comes from all of our people, from old generations and new Americans.
On this Independence Day, the meaning of Hero Street is worth remembering.
Thank you, Randy. This story is playing out all across Iowa and America right now. Given the xenophobic hysteria coming from the President and MAGA, we need to be repeating and uplifting these stories as much as possible.