Selected Interview Segments: Cecilia Garcia Akers
Celia Garcia Akers,
Daughter of Dr. Hector P. Garcia
Copyright 2007 South Texas Public Broadcasting System, INC.
Q: What is your earliest recollection when you realized your father was someone important?
A: I felt that my father was important probably when I was around 5 years old. I noticed that he was gone a lot and had, was very busy. Um... he was always working with his patients at the office and I don't think I probably realized what he was into politically until I was a little older, like around 8 years old. I noticed that his name was in the paper a lot, or (chuckles) he was talking about things that he was doing at the dinner table. He was talking about a meeting that he had or people that he had to go see, or, he was gone a lot. You know, he was always gone in his car on trips. And he was taking these trips out of town, but I did not realize, of course, the impact of what he was doing until much later.
Q: What's the best thing about having Dr. Garcia, founder of the American G. I. Forum, advisor to Presidents, as your father?
A: I learned things from him that I could never get any place else in the entire world. He was so intelligent, and he had a way about him that I think I learned things on how to deal with people, from every single class of life, from the very rich to the very poor. He treated everyone the same. And, I think I learned a lot from him about how to deal with people and how to treat everyone and treat everyone with respect.
Q: And, on the other side, what about the worst part of having him as founder of the American G. I. Forum?
A: The worst thing about having my father as the founder of the American G. I. Forum, I think was the time that it took away from-from the family. I don't think anyone really realizes the impact that it had on my mother, having to raise four children virtually by herself. He wasn't there to really help us with school problems such as, you know, some parents get to help their children with their math or-- he wasn't available to do that. He was always very kind to all our friends who came to the house. But I think he missed a lot out of our growing up that I think he was, he regretted that later as he got older, that he really missed all his, all his children growing up and turning into, into young ladies and then adults. I think that was the hardest thing.
Q: Around 1959, 1960 is when you moved in to a new neighborhood.
A: The new neighborhood, yes.
Q: So what was it like moving into that neighborhood? First of all, I guess, for those not familiar with the neighborhood, describe this house that you're moving in that's fairly affluent at that time in Corpus Christi.
A: The house they built, uh, from ground up. They planned it, and designed it. Uh, it was a very nice house. Uh, it was well decorated and well landscaped. It was probably the best one there in the neighborhood, on top of it. And, of course, it was the newest one. It was the last one built on that block. Uh, it was an all-Anglo neighborhood. Uh, there were no Hispanics in the entire Lamar Park. I think we were the only Hispanic family. On top of that, because at that time was probably the beginning for him getting the G. I. Forum national attention, combined with the fact that it-- we were an Hispanic family, moved in to an all-white neighborhood, it just did not sit well with the entire neighborhood.
It was one battle after another. Just living in the house, we had to get an unlisted phone number. We could not go outside certain times of the day. The children there were very cruel, as well as their parents were very cruel. A lot of parents did not want their children socializing with-with us. We were nice kids, too, you know. I mean, it's like, you know, we were well-behaved, well-mannered, you know. We were going to good schools. So it was just a very, very difficult time for us growing up. I'm surprised that, we all made it through, that time, because it was very difficult and he was not there. And my mother was not real good at handling stress like that, so we were kind of on our own. My sisters and I were on our own to kind of-- We fought our own battles and we, you know, we defended him and-and the rest of the family. So it was a very terrible time.
Q: Dr. Garcia worked with so many issues, one moment he's concerned about the welfare of a child and a mother, perhaps their medical condition. The next moment he's dealing with somebody else on political issues. How do you think he had the ability to constantly be switching between all of these different activities?
A: My father was a brilliant man. I mean, I've never seen anyone like him. He was so full of energy. Um, and he had that energy until it, his later years in life. But he was constantly on the go. He never stopped. He had very few hours of sleep every night. He had a tremendous amount of energy, a tremendous amount of purpose. He did make lists. I remember he had a list every day of things that he needed to do, and he would scratch them off and number them in priority. I know that he did that because I would see him carry with him in his coat pocket. He had a list of all his patients every day. His secretaries would make the list. So, I think-- He prioritized, but I think he was-he was just such a brilliant man, very intelligent, had so much knowledge about different subjects. He was just able to pull it all together every day and then, plus his ability to get along with people, and he had the ability to get everyone to do what he wanted them to do.
If President Clinton had come to see him, it would have been no different than somebody working at the hospital with him. I mean, he just treated everyone the same, with very much respect. I think that's why people really like being around him, because they felt comfortable with him.
But he didn't do well with mechanical things, like the air conditioner breaking in the house, you know. Things like that would make him very upset, especially his car, when his car would break and had to be in the shop. Well, he would call people at 1:00 in the morning to get them to come over to fix his car for him. I mean, he just did not handle that very well. (laughter)
Q: You know, one of the purposes of our program is to tell an untold story. So, do you have anything that is untold or unknown about Dr. Hector that you could share with us or tell us about?
A: An untold story-- Let me think. Well, he was a sports fanatic. I don't know if you know-knew that. He loved professional sports, especially as he got older and he spent more time at home. And his patients, he was not, you know, seeing as many a day, so he had more time to spend at the house. But he was very much into football and very much into professional basketball. And I think he also liked some hockey, but not as much. I think I kind of got him into that. We both were into watching, the Los Angeles Lakers back in the 80's. So he was-- He would root for them basically because I liked them. I think that came from when he was a young boy because he liked to play a lot of baseball, and he watched baseball also.
Q: Tell me about the day that he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Reagan.
A: The day he was to get the medal, he was very nervous. I remember in the morning (chuckles) he was calling us all up in our hotel rooms and giving us orders (chuckles) as to where we needed to be and not to leave the hotel. And he was just very, very nervous.
He got to sit there at the same table as President Reagan and so he was very, very happy. And I remember, George Bush came over and said hello to him and-and-and called him Dr. Hector. And everybody knew him as Dr. Hector there in Washington. And we got to meet Ted Kennedy. He was there. We got to meet some very, very influential, important people. But he was-he was just so humbled by that.
I think he was proud a Republican President was giving him the medal, which was, you know, probably a little different than he ever expected. But, it was the highlight of his life and you could tell by just the look on his face. And he was so excited and-and so proud of it. And, you know his picture was in the paper with the medal. And he wore that medal and I think probably not just the day of the ceremony, but he wore that medal to every event that he went to. He always had it around him. And one time, he thought he had lost it. And I remember him calling me. He was panicked because he couldn't find it, but he had found it in his car. It has slid down in the seat. But, he wore that medal everywhere that he went. And, that's how I know it was probably the most important thing to him because he never parted with it.