hector commemoration 2014.pdf
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Jose Garcia, father of Hector Garcia
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A descendant
of Spanish landgrantees, Dr. Garca was
born in the city of
Llera, Tamaulipas,
Mxico, to
Jos Garca Garca and
Faustina Perz Garca,
both schoolteachers.
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His family fled the
violence of the Mexican
Revolution in 1917, legally
immigrating to Mercedes,
Texas.
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Longtime Corpus Christiphysician, communityadvocate, educator, and
historian, Dr. Clotilde P. Garcia
(1917-2003) was a
remarkable Texan.
Dr. Cleo (as she was
affectionately known) was
active in South Texas for overfifty years
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Separate but equal was the law of the land after a Supreme Court ruling involving a
1896 case brought on by African American homer Plessy. Segregation was a
widespread practice. Children attended Mexican, Indian, Colored, and
Oriental, schools. Hector Garcia graduated in 1932 from one of these schools.
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In 1929, he joined
the Citizens Military
Training Corps, a
peacetime branch of
the United States Armyand earned a
commission from the
CMTC with a rank
equivalent to a second
lieutenant in the
U.S. infantry.
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Hector P. Garcia graduated
from High School in 1932,
and for two years hehitchhiked thirty miles to
the nearest Junior College in
Edinburg.
A&M Corpus Christi Bell Library; Dr. Hector P Garcia Special Collections & Archives
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He began attending
Edinburg Junior College,
to and from which he had
to hitchhike thirty milesdaily. His father had to
cash in his life insurance
policy to finance young
Hector's education.
In 1932, Garca enteredthe University of Texas at
Austin, graduating with a
degree in zoology. He was
one of the top ten of his
class. He went on to study
at the University of Texasat Galveston, earning his
doctorate in medicine in
1940.
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He accomplished his general andsurgical residency at St. Joseph's
Hospital, the learning hospital for
Creighton University in Omaha, in
1942
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Captain Garcia, in 1942,entered the U.S. Army,
serving as an officer in the
Infantry, engineer Corps and
Medical Corps in the
European theater andattained the rank of major.
For his services he was
awarded a Bronze Star and
six Battle Stars
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He met an married his
wife, Wanda Fusillo in
Naples, Italy a month
after she finished her
doctoral studies inliberal arts
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Hector Jr. being held by Dr. Hector P.
Garcia, Wanda and Daisy Wanda.
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March 26, 1948
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The incident drew commentaryfrom the national news media
Walter Winchell, who said, "The
state of Texas, which looms so
large on the map, looks mighty
small tonight" Because of the
largely negative attention that
Texas received, Dr. Garcia and
his family received many insults
and threats
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The Longoria Incident
Army Pvt. Felix Longoria, a native of the
small South Texas town of Three Rivers
whose remains were returned from Luzon,in the Philippines, for burial four years
after World War II ended Mr. Longorias
widow, Beatriz, had been denied use of a
hometown funeral chapel because the
Longorias were Mexican-American. Shewas told that the "white people would not
stand for it." Mr. Kennedy had indicated
that he would handle the arrangements
for burial (in the segregated "Mexican"
cemetery separated by a barbed wire),but would not allow the use of the chapel
for the wake
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In 1949, he
represented the
family of Pvt. FelixLongoria. From 1951
to 1952, he was the
legal advisor for the
AGIF. In 1952, Garcia
was an attorney in the
case of Hernandez v.State of Texas.
Gustavo Gus Garcia, PeteHernandez, John Herrera
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When in 1952 Pulitzer Prize winning author Edna Ferber wrote her very popular book
Giant upon which the motion picture was later based, she used an interview with Dr.
Garcia as a basis for the Mexican-American doctor in the novel and two striking scenes
in the film. One was crafted after the Longoria incident and the second involved the
refusal of a restaurant to serve Latinos.
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In 1960 Garca became the nationalcoordinator of the Viva Kennedy Clubs
organized to elect John F. Kennedy as
president, he commenced a long
association with the Democratic Party.
Kennedy upon election did not pursue
any Hispanic agenda but in 1962 did
appoint Dr. Garca as representative of
the US to effect a mutual defense treaty
with the Federation of the West Indies.
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In 1966 now-President Lyndon B.
Johnson appointed Garcia as alternate
ambassador to the United Nations with
a directive to better relations with Latin
American nations and Spain. This same
year the President also appointed himto the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
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Dr. Hector P. Garcia Ambassador
United Nations is welcomed byAmbassador Arthur Goldberg
Chief of U.S. Mission
September 20, 1967
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On March 26, 1984 he received
from President Ronald Reagan
the nations highest civilian
award, the Presidential Medalof Freedom.
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A Catholic, Garcia was named
to the Order of St. Gregory the
Great by Pope John Paul II in1990.
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In 1999 Dr. Garcasimage was placed on the U.S.
Treasury $75 I Bond Series honoring great Americans.
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Bibliography:Wanda Garcia,
Dr. Hector P. Garca Papers,
Special Collections and Archives, Bell Library,
Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi. Ignacio
M. Garcia, Hector P. Garcia: In Relentless
Pursuit of Justice (Houston: Arte Pblico Press,
2002).
"Hector P. Garcia, A Texas Legend," UTMB, TheUniversity of Texas Medical Branch
Justice for My People: The Dr. Hector P. Garcia
Story
New York Times, July 29, 1996.
Henry Ramos, The American G. I. Forum: In
Pursuit of the Dream, 1948-1983 (Houston:Arte Pblico Press, 1998).