Everything About Hector Garcia

1
Everything About Hector Garcia
2
How did Hector Garcia live?

• When Hector Garcia was a little boy, he and his
  family moved from Mexico to the United States.
  Even though he had to deal with racism and quotas
  in school, he was still able to get a medical
  degree. Hector Garcia was in the U.S. Army during
  World War II, and after the war he moved to
  Corpus Christi, Texas. After seeing how hard it
  was for Mexican American veterans to get
  benefits, Garcia moved to California and opened a
  medical practice.
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3
Work for Civil Rights

• Hector Garcia also started working for civil
  rights. In 1948, Garcia set up the American G.I.
  Forum to help these veterans. The group grew to
  have chapters all over the country and is still
  going strong today. It worked on issues like
  school integration and getting rid of the poll
  tax in Texas. In 1984, he was given the
  Presidential Medal of Freedom.

4
Early Life

• Hector Perez Garcia was born on January 17, 1914,
  in Llera, Tamaulipas, Mexico, to teachers Jose
  Garcia and Faustina Perez Garcia. In 1918, when
  Garcia was only 3 years old, his family had to
  leave Mexico because of the violence of the
  Mexican Revolution. They moved legally to Texas.
  In 1946, Garcia became a citizen of the United
  States.

5
School Life

• Garcia grew up in the Texas town of Mercedes. He
  did well in school and was named valedictorian of
  his high school in 1932. Garcia later said that
  one of the things that drove him to do well was
  that a teacher once told him, No Mexican will
  ever get an A in my class.

6
Graduation

• After Garcia went to Edinburg Junior College, he
  moved on to the University of Texas, where he got
  his degree in 1936. Then Hector went to the
  University Of Texas School Of Medicine
  (Galveston).  He was the main Latino in his group
  in view of a quota. Garcia couldnt find a place
  to live in Texas because of discrimination.
  Instead, he became a resident at St. Josephs
  Hospital at Creighton University in Omaha,
  Nebraska.

7
Serve in the Military

• When Garcia was 15, he joined the Citizens
  Military Training Corps. During World War II, in
  1942, he joined the U.S. Army on his own. He was
  given the Bronze Star for his service in Europe
  and North Africa.

8
Equal Rights in Military

• Garcias time in the military showed him how
  important equal rights are. In 1947, he wondered
  if some Mexican American deaths in World War II
  were caused by the fact that these soldiers went
  to segregated schools and got a lower-quality
  education. He said that some of those lives
  might not have been lost if they had been
  better equipped and trained to defend
  themselves.

9
Join the League of United Latin American Citizens

• After World War II ended, Garcia moved to Corpus
  Christi, Texas. He started a medical practice and
  joined the League of United Latin American
  Citizens. One of the goals of LULAC was to fight
  against racism. But Garcia thought more needed to
  be done to help Mexican American veterans who had
  trouble getting services from the Veterans
  Administration, like the G.I. Bill, home loans,
  and care at V.A. hospitals. In March 1948, he set
  up the American G.I. Forum to deal with these
  problems.

10
Longoria Affair

• In January 1949, Garcia told the media and public
  figures, including then-Senator Lyndon B.
  Johnson, that a funeral director wouldnt let the
  family of Private Felix Longoria hold services in
  a chapel in Longorias hometown of Three Rivers,
  Texas, because the whites wouldnt like it.
  Johnson instead made plans for Longoria to be
  buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The event,
  which became known as the Longoria Affair, was a
  turning point in the fight for equal treatment of
  Mexican Americans. Also, it showed how strong the
  American G.I. Forum is.

11
Career in Politics

• Garcia worked as a coordinator for Viva Kennedy
  clubs during the 1960 presidential campaign. He
  did this because he thought that if John F.
  Kennedy was elected, it would help the fight for
  civil rights. When Kennedy and Johnson won Texas
  by only 46,257 votes, it showed how much power
  Latino voters have in politics.

12
Federation of the West Indies

• Even though Kennedy put Garcia in charge of
  working on a defense treaty with the Federation
  of the West Indies, Garcia was disappointed that
  the Kennedy administration didnt put Hispanics
  at the top of its list of priorities. But this
  didnt stop Garcia from joining Viva Johnson
  clubs and voting for Johnson in the 1964 election.

13
Wife and Kids

• During the war, Garcia had the chance to meet
  Wanda Fusillo, who was from Naples. They got
  married in 1945 and had three daughters and a son
  after that. When he was a teen, their son was
  killed in an accident.

14
Activist for civil rights and Politics

• Garcia was an activist for civil rights and
  politics, but he was also a doctor who helped
  many people, whether or not they could pay him.
  Edna Ferber based the character of a
  Mexican-American doctor in her book Giant on him
  (1952).

15
Death

• On July 26, 1996, Garcia died in Corpus Christi
  at the age of 82. He had been sick with cancer of
  the stomach.

16
Leaving a Legacy

• In 2010, Congress passed a resolution to
  recognize Garcias work for civil rights.
  Schools, a library, and a post office are all
  named after Garcia. In 2002, Justice for My
  People The Dr. Hector P. Garcia Story, a
  documentary about his life, came out on public
  television. In 2012, one of his daughters set up
  the Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Foundation to
  honour his life and work.