Upwards Mobilization
By Dylan C. Fox
Peter P. Salgado, Jr.
August 22, 1893 – November 15, 1990
Peter Salgado in uniform. (Courtesy of the 16th Infantry Regiment Association)
Both the experience and value of military service can mean a variety of different things to different people. To some, it is a family tradition or an expression of patriotism. To others, it can be a means to an end. Yet, only for a select few does the military become a lifelong career, a continuous commitment to decades upon decades of service.
Peter Paul Salgado, Jr. was born on August 22, 1893 in Tucson, Arizona Territory to Pedro Madrigal Salgado, Sr. and Maria Guadalupe Preciado.[1] As a family of working-class, second-generation Mexican Americans that primarily spoke Spanish, the Salgado family moved throughout the Arizona Territory and along the California border seeking opportunity. Shortly after Peter’s birth, his family moved to the mining camp of Hedges in San Diego County where Pedro Sr. supported the family as one of the hundreds of mineros that formed the bulk of the workforce at the Cargo Muchacho Mountains.[2] These mineros lived and worked in an social hierarchy that barred Mexicans and Mexican-Americans alike from joining unions and restricted them to the most dangerous or unskilled positions.[3] By 1910, the Salgado family left the exploitative conditions of Hedges behind and settled in Pima, Arizona Territory, where Pedro Sr. worked as a janitor and baker while Peter took a job at 15 as a printer to support his six siblings.[4]
While records are unclear, it seems that Peter joined the Cadet Battalion of the Arizona National Guard at the University of Arizona.[5] The 1942 Army Military Register lists Salgado as a 2nd Lieutenant as early as July 2, 1915, while the Department of Veterans Affairs records his enlistment date as May 30, 1916.[6] Salgado happened to begin his service amid a time of greatly strained relations between the United States and Mexico, which was in the midst of a revolution. A group of nine Mexican nationals drafted the Plan de San Diego in 1915, a revanchist conspiracy to organize an uprising throughout southwestern states annexed during the Mexican-American War – an area of about 529,000 square miles that included California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, and pieces of Colorado and Wyoming.[7] The Texas Rangers and white vigilante groups responded by initiating a widespread counterinsurgency campaign that suspected anyone of Mexican descent of complicity, resulting in unrest and some support for the Plan among the Mexican-American population that was already being pushed out of their lands by increasing waves of American speculators and businessmen. While the Plan de San Diego and its resulting conflict was localized in Texas and not Salgado’s home state of Arizona, it heightened tensions and sowed mistrust of the Mexican American community throughout the American Southwest.[8]
The effects of the Mexican Revolution and these tensions undoubtedly affected Salgado by March 1916 when the revolutionary Pancho Villa led a raid on the town of Columbus, New Mexico. President Wilson responded by ordering General Pershing to lead a punitive expedition into Mexico and capture Pancho Villa. In the midst of this, Salgado was pulled from his studies at the University of Arizona when his regiment, the 1st Infantry of the Arizona National Guard, was mobilized by Wilson and sent to the border to serve as a rearguard for Pershing’s expedition and protect against further incursions.[9] Salgado likely served in a tense and uncertain environment, poised on the brink of war against his grandfather’s homeland amid escalations between communities miles away for his own.
Salgado and the 1st Infantry had their border patrol duties cut short by the United States’ entry into World War I, wherein they were redesignated as the 158th Infantry and sent to France as supplement personnel to other units.[10] Peter Salgado was not the only one of his family to serve in the military at this time as his younger brother Alfredo was part of the 60th Infantry Division. Unfortunately, Alfredo lost his life during the Meuse–Argonne offensive of the First World War; he remains buried in Lorraine, France.[11] During Salgado’s service in World War I, he received his first promotion to 1st Lieutenant on December 21, 1917.[12]
Salgado, in the service cap, salutes the colors of the honor guard during a visit by General John Steele. (Courtesy of the 16th Infantry Regiment Association)
After World War I, Salgado remained a career officer and traveled throughout the United States and abroad as part of a lifetime of service to the US Army. After leaving France he was posted to Camp Eldridge in the Philippines, then to Wheeling, West Virginia, and then Fort Benning, Georgia. At some point, Salgado married Thelma C. Strayer and they had two children, Paul Ramon Salgado and Peter Salgado III, yet she died of septicemia on March 16, 1932.[13] In 1942, Salgado was stationed in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor.[14] After the end of World War II, Salgado had risen through the ranks to Colonel and on September 1, 1947, he became the first Mexican American regimental commander of the 16th Infantry Regiment while it served as an occupation force in Austria.[15] Upon returning to the United States, he was assigned as a senior army instructor for the Organized Reserve Corps in Detroit, Michigan.[16]
After leaving the army in 1953, Salgado moved to Colorado with his second wife, Lois Craig.[17] He had served in the US Army for over 37 years and lived until the age of 97 before passing away on November 19, 1990.[18] At the time of his death, Salgado was survived by wife, his sons Paul and Peter, his daughter Lois, as well as nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.[19] While Salgado was born during a time of limited opportunity for Mexican-Americans, his service record shows a clear aptitude for leadership that was recognized by his superiors. Salgado’s professionalism demonstrates the commitment of the Latino community of the Armed Forces and may have helped paved the way for future generations.
Footnotes ↓
[1] “1900 United States Federal Census,” ancestry.com, entry for Pedro Madrigal Salgado.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Stephen R. Van Wormer and James D. Newland, “The History of Hedges and the Cargo Muchacho Mining District, Part II,” San Diego History Center (San Diego Historical Society Quarterly), accessed May 17, 2021, sandiegohistory.org/journal/1996/july/cargo-2/.
[4] “1910 United States Federal Census,” ancestry.com, entry for Pedro Salgado Jr.
[5] “History,” Army ROTC of the University of Arizona, February 21, 2019, accessed May 6, 2021, wildcatbn.arizona.edu/history.
[6] “U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985,” ancestry.com, entry for Peter P Salgado;
“U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” ancestry.com, entry for Peter P Salgado;
“Col. Peter P. Salgado,” Tucson Citizen, (August 29, 1949): 2, newspapers.com, newspapers.com/clip/70360496/tucson-citizen/?xid=865.
[7] James A. Sandos, "Plan de San Diego," in Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture, edited by Michael S. Werner. Routledge, 1998.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Arizona Army National Guard - History,” Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, accessed May 6, 2021, dema.az.gov/army-national-guard/papago-park/history.
[10] Ibid.
[11] “Pvt. Alfredo Salgado (1895-1918),” findagrave.com, accessed May 5, 2021, findagrave.com/memorial/55996501/alfredo-salgado.
[12] “U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985,” ancestry.com, entry for Peter P Salgado.
[13] “Georgia, U.S., Deaths Index, 1914-1940,” ancestry.com, entry for Thelma Salgado.
[14] “Col. P.P. Salgado Given New Duties,” Arizona Daily Star, (August 28 1949): 19, newspapers.com. newspapers.com/clip/70358878/arizona-daily-star/?xid=865.
[15] “Regimental Commanders 1861-1957,” 16th Infantry Regiment Association, accessed May 6, 2021, 16thinfassn.org/history/historical-galleries/regimental-commanders-1861-1957/.
[16] “Col. Peter P. Salgado,” Tucson Citizen, (August 29 1949): 2, newspapers.com, newspapers.com/clip/70360496/tucson-citizen/?xid=865.
[17] “West Virginia, U.S., Marriages Index, 1785-1971,” ancestry.com, entry for Lois Craig, Peter Salgado.
[18] “U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” ancestry.com, entry for Peter P Salgado.
[19] “Obituary - Peter Paul Salgado,” Rocky Mountain News, December 13, 1990, 207.
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