hector commemoration 2014.pdf

8/10/2019 hector commemoration 2014.pdf

1/75


2/75

Jose Garcia, father of Hector Garcia


3/75

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.


4/75

His family fled the

violence of the Mexican

Revolution in 1917, legally

immigrating to Mercedes,

Texas.


5/75


6/75

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


7/75


8/75

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.


9/75

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.


10/75

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


11/75

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.


12/75


13/75

He accomplished his general andsurgical residency at St. Joseph's

Hospital, the learning hospital for

Creighton University in Omaha, in

1942


14/75

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


15/75

He met an married his

wife, Wanda Fusillo in

Naples, Italy a month

after she finished her

doctoral studies inliberal arts


16/75

Hector Jr. being held by Dr. Hector P.

Garcia, Wanda and Daisy Wanda.


17/75


18/75


19/75

March 26, 1948


20/75


21/75


22/75


23/75


24/75

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


25/75

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


26/75


27/75


28/75

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


29/75


30/75

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.


31/75


32/75

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.


33/75

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.


34/75

Dr. Hector P. Garcia Ambassador

United Nations is welcomed byAmbassador Arthur Goldberg

Chief of U.S. Mission

September 20, 1967


35/75


36/75

On March 26, 1984 he received

from President Ronald Reagan

the nations highest civilian

award, the Presidential Medalof Freedom.


37/75

A Catholic, Garcia was named

to the Order of St. Gregory the

Great by Pope John Paul II in1990.


38/75

In 1999 Dr. Garcasimage was placed on the U.S.

Treasury $75 I Bond Series honoring great Americans.


39/75


40/75


41/75


42/75


43/75


44/75


45/75


46/75


47/75


48/75


49/75


50/75


51/75


52/75


53/75


54/75


55/75


56/75


57/75


58/75


59/75


60/75


61/75


62/75


63/75


64/75


65/75


66/75


67/75


68/75


69/75


70/75


71/75


72/75


73/75


74/75


75/75

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).

hector commemoration 2014.pdf

Documents