Gregorio Barrera

Gregorio Barrera, born in Rio Grande City in 1917, volunteered for Army service in 1941 and was assigned to the Philippines, where he was stationed when the United States declared war on Japan in December 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the three-month Battle of Bataan, he was among 76,000 American and Filipino soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese Army. As a prisoner of war, he was forced to march 70 miles without food or water under extreme conditions while suffering from diseases such as malaria and dysentery on the Bataan Death March to Balanga, the capital of Bataan, during which an estimated 10,000 soldiers died from frequent beatings or summary execution by the Japanese, cruelty later judged a war crime. Barrera survived the physical abuse and other atrocities and attributed his survival to angels that appeared and saved him. After Japan surrendered in 1945 and the prisoners of war were liberated, he returned to Rio Grande, married Teresa Hernandez, and raised five children. In 1998, the City of Rio Grande named the plaza in his honor to memorialize his courage and sacrifice as a survivor of the Bataan Death March.

Rio Grande City, Texas · United States