The Chicano Movement began to take off after Mexican-American soldiers in World War II were not treated as their white counter-parts were, and in fact at times were not even treated with the honor and dignity befitting a soldier. These same attitudes would later be repeated during the Vietnam War, another time when minorities would have unusually high death rates, and yet little respect back home. The Felix Longoria affair sparked an outrage in the community when Private Longoria, a young soldier who had been killed in the war, was denied funeral services in his hometown, Three Rivers, Texas. The American G.I. Forum, a civil rights grouped founded by Mexican-American veterans, took up his cause and eventually Private Longoria was granted the honor of burial at Arlington National Cemetery. Though this was certainly a victory, it was only a glimpse at the long uphill battle that lay in store for Chicano activists.
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