Author’s research for genealogy project uncovers heroic story

A genealogy project to share his family roots with his children, now 26, 24, 18 and 17, turned into a historic quest for Dave Gutierrez.

The most amazing person he discovered, whose story he had heard as a kid, was that of Ramon Gutierrez, a decorated World War II veteran who was captured twice by the Nazis and escaped both times.

Dave Gutierrez wondered why no one had written about Ramon Gutierrez, his second cousin. As he dug deeper, however, he found there was a bigger story than his cousin’s heroic acts.

Ramon Gutierrez was a part of Company E in the 141st Infantry, 36th Division, an all Mexican-American company that originated from a National Guard unit made up of men from the barrios of El Paso and other Texas towns.

The story of that unit tugged at Dave Gutierrez, a production planner for a biotech company in Fremont who was born and raised in San Jose.

Ramon Gutierrez had died by the time Dave started the project that would take him five years, but he reached out to the surviving men or families of the men who served in the unit, contacting more than 60 of them. The result was “Patriots from the Barrio,” which he self-published in 2014. He recently sold the rights to the book to Hollywood actor/producer Wilmer Valderrama’s production company, WV Enterprises, and the book is being published and released by Westholme Publishing.

Gutierrez will speak and sign books at Stockton’s Chicano Research Center, 2182 E. Main St., beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday.

“Here at the center we probably have the best collection of literature and videos and stuff on Mexican veterans,” center founder and director Richard Soto said. “I’m always searching for material. There are only two books on Company E,

Dave Gutierrez’s and Sam Ortegga’s. Sam’s talks about the battle of the Rapido River. Dave gets more into the individuals personal background, their personal history.”

Gutuirrez said he studied officers’ reports of the 141st infantry from the time it landed at Salerno until Rome fell. He looked at the day-byday reports and combined them with personal memories to tell the story of a segregated unit, led by an Anglo commander, that was with the first Americans to set foot in Europe to oppose Hitler’s forces.

That was Sept. 9, 1943, and the landing at Salerno was challenging.

“It was touch and go where people were whispering, ‘Dunkirk,’” Gutierrez said. “They were almost thrown off the beach head.”

Ramon Gutierrez distinguished himself for the first time that day.

“His squad was pinned down,” Gutierrez said. “They came across five German tanks. His was one of the first units to land at the beach. They were trying to fight off tanks with infantry weapons. There was a machine gunner behind the tanks. A couple of men were getting killed in front of my cousin. He starts to charge the machine gun. He gets wounded in his arm and loses his rifle but continues to charge the machine gun next and takes it out with a hand grenade. He kills the last soldier with handto-hand combat.”

He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions, and when a comrade asked why he’d done it, Ramon Gutierrez said, “I thought I was going to die that day, so I didn’t care what happened to me.”

Company E was part of the battle for San Petro and then was involved in the crossing of the Rapido River, a travesty in which some 2,000 men were lost in 24 hours.

His cousin survived but was captured near Anzio, was tortured but managed to escape and make his way back to his unit.

Ramon Gutierrez, injured three times, survived the war, returned home with PTSD and spent his career as a medical assistant in the VA hospital in Palo Alto. He died in 1993 at 70, before Dave Gutierrez undertook his search for the story.

Many of Company E remained, some willing to tell the story they had long before buried.

The result is the book, but all along, Dave Gutierrez had grander plans.

“Before Wilmer reached out to me I was looking to do a documentary film myself,” said Gutierrez, who now writes full time and speaks about the book and genealogy. “I was ready to travel to Italy with family members and trace their footsteps and tell the story through a documentary. That’s where I was going prior to getting that important email and phone call from Hollywood.

I’m still passionate about this story. My end game has been to see this story on film, one way or another.”

For now, however, the story comes to life through the words in his book.