This July 6, 2017 photo shows a makeshift memorial to Hispanic Civil War Union soldiers who fought in the Battle of Glorieta Pass in Northern New Mexico outside Santa Fe. It's a typical representation for many sites linked to U.S. Latino history: It's shabby, largely unknown and always at risk of disappearing if it weren't for a handful of history aficionados. The lack of historical markers and preserved historical sites connected to Latino civil rights worries scholars who feel the scarcity is affecting how Americans see Hispanics in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras)
GLORIETA PASS, N.M. – The lack of historical markers and preserved historical sites connected to Latino civil rights worries scholars who feel the scarcity is affecting how Americans see Hispanics in U.S. history.
Sites historically linked to key moments in U.S. Latino civil rights lie forgotten, decaying or endanger of quietly dissolving into the past without acknowledgement.
The birth home of farmworker union leader Cesar Chavez sits abandoned in Yuma, Arizona. The Corpus Christi, Texas, office of Dr. Hector P. Garcia, where the Mexican American civil rights movement was sparked, is gone.
Preservation activists say more needs to be done to save sites.
University of Texas journalism professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez says people want to see and feel history.
She says markers are a daily reminder.
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