Film on Mexican WWII fighter squadron that helped PH shown in Portland

PORTLAND, Oregon — A screening of “Forgotten Eagles,” a film about Mexico’s Aztec Eagle fighter squadron, which fought against the Japanese in the Philippines in World War II, was held Thursday, January 8, at the Washington County Museum.

A question-and-answer session with Cornelius resident, history buff and film consultant Sig Unander followed the screening held in conjunction with one of the museum’s current exhibits, “Washington County Goes to War.” Unander spent six years on research and logistical preparations for the film.

The 71-minute documentary details the little-known story of the Aztec Eagle fighter squadron, created by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho.

The Eagles were a unit of bilingual aviators and support personnel who helped American forces liberate the Philippines during World War II. The pilots’ exploits were highly publicized, and they became national heroes in Mexico and symbols of wartime solidarity between the U.S. and Mexico. The governments of all three countries decorated the unit.

The film took three years to make, and blends archival footage of the squadron in training and in the combat zone with present-day interviews with squadron personnel, their relatives and friends.

“This is a powerful, positive story of Mexico partnering with the United States to help liberate a former sister colony of Mexico from a brutal Japanese occupation; it’s also a dramatic personal story, told first-hand by the Mexicans, Filipinos and Americans who lived it,” said Victor Mancilla, the film’s producer and director.