The Spanish region of Galicia has long been a land of emigrants. Many of them left for the United States.<\/p>\n
The excellent YouTube channel Tropa Guripa<\/a>, produced from Galicia, has spent years documenting the stories of Galician emigrants who served in the United States Army during World War II<\/strong>\u2014including Manuel Otero, the only Spaniard to fall during the Normandy landings<\/a> on June 6, 1944. He was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, part of the famous 1st Infantry Division\u2014the \"Big Red One.\"<\/p>\n In their latest video, released this Sunday, Tropa Guripa shares the story of a Galician cook named Jos\u00e9 Pi\u00f1eiro Gonz\u00e1lez<\/strong>, a native of Moa\u00f1a\u2014a beautiful town located on the northern shore of the R\u00eda de Vigo. Jos\u00e9 emigrated to the United States, where he changed his name to Joseph P. Gonz\u00e1lez<\/strong> (a common practice among many emigrants to facilitate their integration into the country). During World War II, Jos\u00e9 served as a cook in the U.S. Army<\/strong>, preparing meals for American soldiers across various postings. You can watch the Tropa Guripa video, which recounts his story, right here (the video is in Spanish but has an English audio track; you can enable it in the player):<\/p>\n
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