The sights, sounds and smells of traditional Mexican dancing, singing, and food filled the air at the U.S. Army Operational Test Command on Oct. 6 as soldiers, Department of the Army civilians and contractors gathered to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Making the event a little unique was having a former command director and former Killeen Mayor Raul Villaronga as guest speaker, sharing his experiences that highlighted this year's theme, "Heritage, Diversity, Integrity and Honor: the Renewed Hope of America."

Saying he was honored to be asked to return to his former place of duty, Villaronga pointed out that when he was at the command, "it was called TCATA (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Combined Arms Test Activity) and I was the director of instrumentation.  A lot has changed since then."

Born on April Fool's Day in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Villaronga said his parents pushed him early on to get an education.

His high school counselor, whose son attended Texas A&M University at the time, influenced Villaronga to go to A&M, "but he never told me it wasn't co-ed," Villaronga said.  "But I joined the Corps, shaved my head and had all my privileges taken away from me."

"It was quite a shock," he continued as several in command's audience shouted Aggie war whoops, "and it was also the first time I learned about prejudice.  A&M was lily-white in the late 1950s, and they only had two categories for Hispanics: Mexican and Spanish.  They didn't quite know what to do with a Puerto Rican."

When Villaronga graduated in 1959 and was commissioned an infantry second lieutenant, he found diversity hadn't made its way to Army either.

"At my new unit, all the Hispanic soldiers were in one company—the Recon Company," he said.

After two tours in Vietnam and serving as commander of the 13th Corps Support Command, which is now Fort Hood's 13th Sustainment Command, Villaronga retired in Killeen in 1985.  He worked his way through several civilian jobs, to include math and computer science instructor at Central Texas College, a private consulting firm engineer and a defense department consultant before being hired by the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Texas Attorney General's Office.

"And then someone, and I don't remember who, suggested I run for mayor of Killeen," Villaronga said, "So I did and ended up serving three terms.  I was the first Puerto Rican to be elected mayor of a Texas city."

Since then, he has served as a Killeen city juvenile judge and is active in the Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Entertainment was provided by the Killeen league's Council 4535 Ballet Folklorico Alegria, whose members sang and danced songs from the Mexican states of Chiapas, Vera Cruz, Yucatan, Jalisco, Aguas Calientes and Chihuahua.  Ethnic dishes and beverages from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Argentina were served by command employees in the Heritage Room.