Epimenio Caraveo
By Celina Moreno
World War II veteran Epigmenio Caraveo valiantly served his country as a paratrooper in the legendary 101st Airborne Division, overcoming the sting of discrimination and poverty of his youth.
As a young boy growing up in the West Texas town of Van Horn -- near his birthplace of Candelaria -- Caraveo labored for a few nickels a day, chopping cotton at a nearby farm. At age 11, he lived "a cowboy life," branding cattle and greasing the windmills for a ranch in Van Horn, 120 miles from El Paso.