As Connecticut is poised to rename a major street through a Latino neighborhood in Bridgeport to “Borinqueneers Memorial Highway’, nationally questions are raised about the lack of input they’ve had in the design of the Congressional Gold Medal they were awarded.
The state bill, which passed early this morning in the legislature’s special session and is headed to the governor’s desk, honors the segregated Puerto Rican military unit, officially the U.S. Army’s 65th Infantry Regiment that served in four wars, while enduring discrimination and other hardships from within the military itself.
Nationally, the organization that lead the grassroots effort to have the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor awarded to the Borinqueneers is criticizing the U.S. Mint, which is responsible for the medals production. The issue, they say, is that those who fought in those units have had little if any participation in the design of the medal.
Frank Medina, a former Bridgeport resident who is chairman of the Borinqueneers Congressional Gold Medal Alliance said, “The democracy that the Borinqueneers so nobly fought for was not at all reflected in the gold medal design process..” Medina, is a West Point Military Academy graduate and served as a captain in the Army.
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