Selected Interview Segments: Dr. Hector P. Garcia
Hector P. Garcia,
Founder, American G.I. Forum
Conducted in 1992, Copyright 1992 KERA-TV
Copyright 2007 South Texas Public Broadcasting System, INC.
Q: Why did your father feel it necessary to emigrate from Mexico?
A: We were born in Mexico during the time of the Mexican Revolution. So by this time, one of his brothers had emigrated to Mercedes, Texas, and started his business. The situation in Mexico was not only very unstable, but dangerous. Expecially in nothern Mexico where we came from - - things were pretty bad and pretty wild. We didn't emigrate to come and work over here, we emigrated on a business venture with my brothers and sisters and father and mother.
Q: You say that you didn't know what discrimination was until you got to the University of Texas. What was it about your growing up before you went to the University of Texas that you didn't know what discrimination was? Was it an all-Mexican town?
A: We lived across the tracks in Mercedes. See, it was an accepted fact that time that all the Mexican students would go to the segregated schools. And nobody knew the difference, that it was unconstitutional. We went along and at school our main job was to get a good education. In other words, we were not fighting discrimination and segregation because we did not know that it really existed. It was an accepted fact that in South Texas we were divided by the railroad tracks. Mercedes was no different. We accepted the fact that we went to the segregated schools. But at the University in Austin we found out also that there was discrimination against the Jewish people and also there were very few blacks. In fact, the blacks hardly attended the University of Texas schools 'til much later.
Q: How did you know that there was only one Mexicano admitted to the University of Texas Medical School every year? Was that official policy?
A: One Mexicano out of one-hundred applicants and out of one-hundred people who went to school there was only one Mexicano. I was the one for that year. My brother, Dr. Jose Antonio Garcia was the one in his year. Dr. Clotilde Garcia my sister was one in [her] year. So it's an accepted fact that I know a lot of our own men that wanted to apply to medical school. They did apply but they didn't get in.
Q: When the Three Rivers incident thing happened with Private Longoria, you already had a sense of what that injustice was before that event happened?
A: Oh, yes. We learned when we went to World War II. We went to fight a Nazi System -which they thought the German was superior to anybody else. And of course we knew about some of the Jewish people being put to death. And the Germans were not accepting anybody except Aryan Germans as first-class citizens.
We come back here and get involved in the Longoria case out of Three Rivers in 1948. We had segregated schools, segregated campuses, segregated hospitals. The hospital had segregated wards for Mexican-American patients. As a doctor I could not put a patient in the hospital because the so-called Mexican-American wards were filled up, and although the Anglo ward would have one patient, they would not allow me to put a Mexican patient with the Anglo.
Q: Do you have a sense that episode of Three Rivers set the stage for the political awakening of Mexican-Americans in the state? Do you think it was that important?
A: I think that was a catalyst for our people - - and not only Mexican-American people, but also Anglo people - to realize the fact of the extent and seriousness of the injustices. Of a man who died for his country in WW II in the Philippines, being refused the use of the chapel. So he brought us up to the knowledge that we were denied the rights and the Anglo people began to see also the fact that it was an injustice. So I think it was a catalyst to start moving Mexican-American people and to try to achieve first-class citizenship. And then try to erase all of those things - - both in discrimination and segregation and violation of our rights-to eliminate them, to achieve what we wanted to achieve which was first-class citizenship.
Q: When all that was happening, were you aware that you were part of a historic event?
A: Oh no, I was merely trying to do my duty. I was still working in medicine. And I decided, like the rest of the people, that it was a great injustice. I didn't consider it an organized plan and I didn't consider it a historical event. It was a single event at that time of trying to bury Felix Longoria with full military honors. First, if possible, in Three Rivers, Texas. If not, in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC.
Q: But is it a fair statement to say that your previous military experience and your training as a doctor to be compassionate toward people, did all those things come together to create a very unique opportunity for you as an individual?
A: I certainly think the fact that I had been involved as an officer of the United States army, the fact that I was a doctor, which showed me compassion for my people. All of those things gave me the ability to organize the American G.I. Forum. Not only locally, but citywide, nationwide. Which is an organization made up of American veterans of Mexican origin.
We're now fighting for their civil rights after we have fought for our military rights in World War II. I felt capable of handling the situation. Now the fact also that our people had received military training made it very easy for me to organize them into a national organization because sure we didn't have the education, we only had the military experience.
Q: When you were involved in all these things - - the gaining of medical care for Mexican American veterans, and the educational Lawsuits and the poll tax - - did you get a sense that you were involved in a moment to uplift a whole community, a whole population? Did you think in those terms?
A: Once I got started, involved in matters concerning education, civil rights, hospitalization, the real estate restrictions - I got a feeling we were moving our Mexican American people way ahead of their time - - faster than I ever thought. I thought unless we move this way, it will take us 50 years to achieve what we achieved within the American G.I. Forum in less than 10 years. I knew we were pushing a people ahead of time.
Q: And was that a feeling that you and people like Gus Garcia and James Deanda and the others -- was that something you all talked about? Or was it each person acting individually?
A: We called people like Gus Garcia and Dr. George I. Sanchez and Jimmie Deanda and Cris Aldrete…we would talk about these things. And we realized what we were doing. Within the structure of this group of people who were knowledgeable.
Our mentor, our director really was George I. Sanchez from the University of Texas. Our legal brain as far as arguing was Gus Garcia. Our legal brain as far researching was Carlos Cadena from San Antonio. I was more or less the catalyst in all those movements. The American G.I. Forum was the "roots" group of people trying to work together to get this thing moving. So all of us together we knew what we were doing. We worked together, although we didn't have a master plan or an idea. We only moved in the direction where things were happening that demanded our action.
Q: Did you ever consider political life?
A: People got the impression or idea that I would eventually seek a political office, and I felt that if I ever sought a political office, that would prove to them that I was only doing this for political satisfaction or getting some money for politics which I never intended. I made up my mind I would not run for any political position, either for pay or no pay, because then you get involved in stopping the movement which I was trying to do on a voluntary basis. A movement of love and faith and respect, a movement that would convince me to work with the Constitution of the United States and State of Texas.
Q: When did you first begin to have such a love for those two Constitutions? How did that happen?
A: Well, I studied history at the University level. Consequently because I certainly did not know about being a natural-born citizen here, I had to learn the Constitution to become a citizen. When I became a citizen, that's when I learned about the Constitution. I knew all the rights, all the things that it gave us. And then, of course, I also served on the United States commission on civil rights. I did a lot of studying then, and my belief in the Constitution became stronger.
What about when you started winning some of those legal cases? Did that reinforce your understanding and belief in the Constitution?
Q: When we started winning a lot of the legal cases, my belief in the Constitution got stronger. In fact, for instance, the Minerva Delgado case in 1948…the Constitution says that you could not segregate us…the courts decided you could not segregate us because of our origins. Because the Constitution always said in Texas that you could not have separate schools for the Mexican Americans. It was there all the time.
Even today, I still have an abiding fact of the Constitution of Texas and the United States. It's important that you have the voting rights act, the civil rights act, which enforces very, very much all our efforts.
A: When you were involved in all these things, and you saw the black civil rights movement explode on the American scene, did you ever look at Martin Luther King as a role model? Or did you ever think of yourself in some of the same terms that people viewed him in?
Q: Certainly Martin Luther King was a great American. He was a man of the cloth. When we started the Civil Rights movement, maybe one or two years before they started. In fact, I think I have over here on my wall a Texas Council-Negro Organization Recognition that I got as early as 1950.
So, although we were working for the same things directly, we were never really joined in forces because I didn't know the reverend. I thought he was a great American. You talk about heroes! I think Mark Luther King was a great American hero. No, I never compare myself to anybody like that. I think they were far above me in everything possible.
Certainly a man who received the Nobel Peace Prize is a very distinguished person. I looked at him and I studied what he was doing and I was very proud of what he was doing. And I knew what effected the blacks also effected us. Whatever rights the blacks would gain would eventually affect us.
A: What is your own personal assessment of your own life? I mean, looking back on some of the things you've done, would you have done things differently? Were you satisfied with the way things have turned out?
During my life I've been very satisfied with what I have done and tried to achieve. Besides being a doctor and helping humanity, I worked on civil rights and opened the door for opportunity for our people. I felt that I did my best. I served my country in World War II. I served my people in civil rights. I became the motivator for stopping the Felix Longoria denial. I was appointed to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Ambassador to the United Nations, and then I served on diplomatic missions.
All this time, I kept my faith in the system, I kept working for my living, I have been fortunate that I been able to make a living off my profession and certainly, people like President Johnson and President Kennedy and Carter called on me for services. I have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest award a President gives a civilian at the White House in 1984 from President Reagan. So I have felt fulfillment in my life for the things I have done for humanity for my people and my country. I am a satisfied person.
Q: Do you think people need heroes? Do you consider yourself one?
A: I've been asked several times, have I been a hero? I say no. I merely represent the people I speak for. I'm a spokesman for the people. Hero? I think a hero is a person who can serve his country -- in different ways. I never consider myself a hero. I consider myself a spokesman for the poor, the hungry, the needy, the minority. I consider myself a servant of this country. So, do people need heroes? I would say yes. Except I am not a hero.