Armando Rodriguez, Second World War veterinarian who served four presidents, dies at age 97

Armando M. Rodriguez, a Mexican immigrant and World War II veteran who served in the administrations of four US presidents while lobbying for civil rights and education reforms, has passed away.

Christy Rodriguez, his daughter, said Wednesday that his father had died Sunday at their home in San Diego following a stroke. He was 97 years old. He has been suffering from a variety of diseases in recent years, she said.

Born in Gomez Palacio, Mexico, Rodriguez arrived in San Diego with his family at the age of 6 in 1927. But he was forced to return to Mexico after his father was deported during the massive deportations of the years. 1930 during the Great Depression. A young Rodriguez lived in Mexico for a year before the family returned.

"He hardly spoke Spanish," said Christy Rodriguez.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, some of his Mexican immigrant friends fled to Mexico to avoid military service. Rodriguez, however, joined the US Army. "It was not a difficult choice," said Rodriguez at the Voces Oral History Project at the University of Texas in August 2000.

After the war, Rodriguez graduated from San Diego State University. He taught and joined the Mexican-American civil rights movement after witnessing that his Latin American veteran colleagues are being denied home access and discriminated against.

He directed the Viva Kennedy campaign in Southern California, which aimed to increase the support of Latino voters for the presidency of John F. Kennedy in 1960. Rodriguez founded a group of veterans' civil rights group American GI Forum in San Diego as a secondary teacher.