In March, while stationed at the Merced Army Air Field in California, Sanchez watched one day as an unmanned BT-13 training aircraft started taxiing down the runway. It was an act of heroism in 1943 that catapulted Sanchez, figuratively and literally, into the cockpit. This inspired him to join the military in 1939, though it was not until 1941 that he transferred from infantry to the Army Air Corps and became an aircraft mechanic and inspector. The school’s special emphasis was aviation instruction, and Sanchez would walk or bike to the school’s runway and spend hours watching the student pilots fly. In 1932, the Chicago Archdiocese established the Holy Name Technical School (now known as Lewis University) 6 miles north of Sanchez’s step-grandparent’s home.

Fidencio worked on the railroad, possibly the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad, whose tracks ran just across the street from their home on Cleveland Avenue. Fidencio and Belen had immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1894-according to the 1930 census-though it’s likely they first stopped in New Mexico, where the census records that Joquina was born. His stepmother, Joquina, raised him along with her parents, Fidencio and Belen Sanchez, who basically adopted him. Sadly, Sanchez was orphaned before his 10th birthday. Later on, there was also the Quiroz family.” īy the time Sanchez was born, the community was large enough to hold parades for Mexican Independence Day and sustain multiple social and civic organizations. The first permanent families to be registered here were the Sanchez family, Orozco family, Elizalde family, and Rivera family. These Mexican families came together to found what is now known by the name Mexican Colony of Joliet. 'A few years would pass until in 1914, a time when the number of migrants increased, many of them stayed and their families came to settle with them. Las primeras familias permanentes que aquí se registraron fueron: la familia Sánchez, la familia Orozco, la familia Elizalde y la familia Rivera. Agrupándose estas familias mexicanas originaron lo que ahora conocemos con el nombre de Colonia Mexicana de Joliet. 'Así pasaron algunos años hasta que en 1914, época en que fué más crecido el número de migrantes, muchos de ellos se quedaron y sus familias vinieron a establecerse con ellos. In his history of Joliet’s Mexican community, Navor Rodriguez-who immigrated from Guanajuato, Mexico, and settled in Joliet in the 1920s-recorded (in Spanish, translated to English below) the founding families: The first permanent Mexican settlers in Joliet arrived in 1914. The first traqueros arrived in Joliet in 1905, but they were transient, arriving with the warm weather and leaving with the cold. While most traqueros lived and worked in the Southwest of the United States, the railroad transported thousands of Mexican laborers to work throughout the Midwest. By that time, Joliet had a growing Mexican community railroads crisscrossed the city, and in the early 20th century, Mexican immigrants had begun arriving in Joliet to work as traqueros-seasonal laborers that constructed, repaired and maintained railroad tracks. Sanchez was born Satero Sierra in Joliet in 1921 to parents who had immigrated from Mexico. His valor-as an aircraft technician and, later, in combat-has earned him a prominent place in the chronicles of the U.S. Technical Sargeant Sator “Sandy” Sanchez was among the most heroic and decorated airmen of World War II. And the name-not the more familiar “Lincoln,” or “Roosevelt” or “Obama”-may not be recognizable to all. Riding up Collins Street toward Sator Sanchez Elementary School, the signs call out to you in Spanish: “Carniceria Rio Grande,” “La Villita Party and Flowers,” “Botanica Dos Soles Y Una Luna.” Arriving at Sator Sanchez Elementary reveals that it is not, by itself, a noteworthy building.

Trails of cold steel a noteworthy loss