Although it might be difficult to believe, Vincent Lopez considers himself a very lucky man. At first glance, most people would strongly disagree.

Lopez was just a 20-year-old G.I. in 1945 when his life changed in a most abrupt and horrific way. During a battle with Japanese troops in the Philippines a hand grenade exploded directly in front of him. The jagged shrapnel tore into his face and left him badly wounded.

The explosion should have killed him, a fact Lopez is certain of. His life was spared but his eyesight was not. One eye was completely disgorged from his face while the other was severely damaged.

Upon returning home from the war Lopez clung to a sliver of sight in his damaged eye. But by 1949 he was completely blind, angry at the world, and feeling hopeless about his future.

It was at this point, when his life was reaching its nadir, that Lopez experienced a new found sense of strength. And as the years passed Lopez began to think about his situation in more positive way.

Although he lost his worldly sight, Lopez realized that his blindness led directly to a different kind of vision. In the darkness Lopez began to see the light.

Everything that happened to him, believes Lopez, was simply part of God’s plan. How could it be anything else?

Before going blind Lopez was an uneducated farm laborer with no real direction and very little faith. Following the war he earned a master’s degree, served as a social worker for nearly 30 years, and began his own Catholic ministry.

The journey wasn’t always easy. There were innumerable setbacks, obstacles and detours. But through hard work, a desire to succeed and a strong faith in a higher purpose, Lopez always managed to beat the odds.

It’s the reason Vincent Lopez believes he is a lucky man.

A tough life

Lopez was born in the small mining town of Miami, Arizona on Jan. 23, 1925. He was the 10th of 21 children born to Mexican natives Pablo and Francisca Lopez. More than half of those children died at a very young age.

Pablo worked for years in gold and copper mines but had very little to show for it. He left the mines to work as a farm laborer and moved the family to Glendale, AZ in 1929. By 1935 the family was living in Brawley in Southern California and traveling throughout the Golden State to work on different farms.

“Every year we would migrate to Merced to pick figs, Fresno for grapes and Corcoran for cotton,” said Lopez.

It was a difficult time with the family on the move five or six months out of the year. But Lopez remembers those days as being among the best of his life.

“My childhood, to me, was very good,” said Lopez. “We didn’t have anything but I don’t remember suffering. I thought they were the best years of my life. Of course, when you are a kid you don’t remember the hard times.”

Lopez jokingly refers to his family as the Mexican version of “The Grapes of Wrath.” The nine-person family would travel around California in a 1932 Chevrolet two-door sedan. A mattress was tied to the roof of the car with an upside down wooden table overflowing with tin tubs full of dishes placed on top. Several more mattresses were tied to the sides of the car and a wood stove was strapped on the back.

“My sisters wore dark glasses as we traveled down Highway 99,” said Lopez. “People really looked at us strangely.”

The family would often stay in labor camps, which consisted of tents and small shacks with no facilities.

“When we were traveling up to Merced we would stay in labor camps,” said Lopez. “They would give you a little one room shack to live in. But it didn’t bother me. We were all family and we were all together.”

Although Lopez and all of his siblings were born in the United States they never spoke English until they went to school. His father wanted the children to retain part of their Mexican heritage and only allowed them to speak Spanish.

Although it was a tough transition for the children once they began attending school Lopez is glad his father was so strict.

“Our dad didn’t want us to learn English until we went to school because he didn’t want us to lose the Spanish language,” said Lopez. “So all of us were bilingual. I still remember the first day I went to school. My gosh. I thought my sister was going to stay with me but she dropped me off at my room and took off. It was frightening not knowing a word of English but I learned quickly.”

As a child of Mexican descent, Lopez was not allowed to attend school with the white children. He never really thought about the segregated schools until he became much older.

“The Mexican kids and the blacks were in one school and the rest were in another school,” said Lopez. “I didn’t think it was bad but I really never thought about it. That was just the way it was. I knew people looked at us kind of funny because were Mexicans.”

Despite having to miss several months of school each year to work in the fields, Lopez became an outstanding student. In eighth grade he won the American Legion award as the top male student in his graduating class.

“School started in September but we were still picking cotton in October and November in Northern California,” said Lopez. “By the time we got back to Brawley I was far behind in my school work. I had a very good teacher, Floris Serns Perkinsen, who would assign one of the top students to help me. By Christmastime I was caught up with the rest of the class. Even with all those difficulties I had no trouble in school. I learned fast.”

A talented athlete, Lopez dreamed of attending high school, something that very few Mexicans did.

“I wanted very much to go to high school,” said Lopez. “I was very much interested in sports. I had dreams and plans of playing football, baseball, everything. In grammar school I played all of that and I wanted to continue.”

That dream proved unattainable. As soon as he finished eighth grade the 15-year-old Lopez began working full time to help support his family.

“I had to help my dad support the rest of the kids,” said Lopez. “All the Mexicans, we were all farm workers and very few went to high school.”

Lopez didn’t spend much time lamenting his fate. He was too busy toiling in fields throughout California and competing against his older brother for the biggest paycheck in the family.

“I remember picking cotton and getting paid one cent per pound,” said Lopez. “Can you imagine? I used to pick 500 pounds and that was $5 a day. That was a lot of money in 1938 and 1939. My older brother could pick 600 pounds so between us we would make $11 a day. We would bring all the money to my mom. My father didn’t make much money so my brother and I would carry the family.”

Call to arms

As talk of war began to swirl in America in 1941, Lopez remained oblivious to it all. He was a hard-working teenager with little interest in world affairs.

“At that time I didn’t notice,” said Lopez. “I was more involved in working and just being a teenager. I didn’t read the newspaper except for the funnies. I wasn’t interested in politics or anything like that.”

His thoughts quickly turned to war after his older brother, Victor, was drafted into the Army following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Lopez was living in Brawley in 1942 and witnessed a sad chapter of American history –scores of Japanese-Americans were forced to leave their homes and live in detention camps.

“I thought it was terrible for them to be taken away and put in concentration camps,” said Lopez.

But the overt display of racism toward the Japanese couldn’t have come as much of a surprise to Lopez. After all, he had been forced to attend a segregated school and saw how Mexicans were treated differently from whites.

Despite such poor treatment, Lopez felt a strong urge to join the military and defend his country.

“It never occurred to me to hold it against the United States for what they were doing to us,” said Lopez. “I wanted to go. I don’t know if it was patriotic but I felt I belonged here. This was my country. I had no experience with Mexico at all. I never went there and knew nothing about it.”

Lopez hoped to join the Navy but was turned down because he was too young and his parents would not sign the enlistment papers. He was eventually drafted into the Army in June of 1943 at the tender age of 18.

“I knew (the draft notice) was coming and I wanted to go,” said Lopez. “I was all excited. I saw it as a vacation. I learned later it wasn’t. But before then I was never away from home and was always around the family. I wanted to be away for awhile and try it on my own. I saw it as an opportunity and I enjoyed being in the service.”

Lopez underwent basic training at Camp Roberts in San Miguel, CA and received additional training at Fort Ord in Salinas, CA. Following a month-long leave, he was shipped to New Zealand where he was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division.

The division was moved to New Caledonia on Feb. 8, 1944 where it underwent extensive training in preparation for the invasion of the Philippines.

On Jan. 11, 1945, the 25th Infantry Division landed near San Fabian on the island of Luzon as part of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s famous return to the Philippines.

Young Vincent Lopez, a scout in Company L of the 161st Regiment, was about to learn that war was no vacation.