Book excerpt: Although Mexican Americans served in large numbers during World War II, for many years they had been left out of the story. In recent years, as historians have sought to write Mexican Americans back in to the World War II narrative, there have been differing opinions on the impact that World War II had on the Mexican-American fight for civil rights. In order to be able to analyze the influence of World War II on Mexican-American civil rights, we must specifically look at different spheres of racism. Without much influence from the war, Mexican-American civil rights groups had been fighting for equality in "official" arenas such as bureaucratic and institutional racism using the legal system before the war and continued to do so afterword. The fight against social racism followed a different trajectory. Mexican Americans had organized in years before World War II and fought for labor rights and in some cases for social equality. Although they were successful in attaining some of their demands, this success was more attributable to the need for their services than it was to changing perceptions about Mexican Americans. World War II was incredibly important to the Mexican-American fight against social inequality because the combination of the renewed hope and demands for equality on the part of returning Mexican-American veterans combined with the patriotic climate of World War II created an environment in which Mexican-American veterans could demand equality based off of the veteran status.