Selected Interview Segments: Dr. Xico Garcia

  
  
  

Dr. Xico Garcia,
Brother of Dr. Hector P. Garcia
Copyright 2007 South Texas Public Broadcasting System, INC.

Q: I'd like to go back to the days your parents were making the decision to flee Mexico because of the Mexican Revolution. Can you take me back and explain to me the necessity- - what the reasons were?

A: During the Mexican Revolution, my father and mother used to teach school in Victoria which is the capital of Tamaulipas state. At that time they were school teachers - -and, my father was afraid for our safety - - for our four brothers and sisters - - Dr. J. A., Dr. Hector, and Dr. Cleo, and Amelia.

Poncho Villa - - then the federal troops would come in, and they would take all the men with them. If you didn't go, they would shoot you. So, of course, they would escape and come back to the families. Also, during war, you know, it's awful. You get to eat something, you're very lucky. So, he did it because of that - - because of our safety and because of the - - the poverty experience there. And, also, he was very much afraid that he was going to get killed and the whole thing.

Q: Can you describe the atmosphere for me of what it was like being in Mercedes, Texas, at that particular time as the children growing up?

A: We went to a segregated school - - the north ward - - it was during the depression, and everything was hard. I have a picture of me and my brother C.P. Garcia with a group - - the north ward grammar school group there. We both were shoeless. The rest of the people had shoes. Of course, the rest of the people there were more interested in - - in, making money like, you know, picking cotton and - - and, uh, working in the fields and working in the packing sheds, and being truck drivers - -while we stressed more the education aspect of the whole thing.

Q: Did you get a sense that your father had a lot of resentfulness or anger about the fact that he was a very intelligent, a very well - - academic man, yet here he was in this country, and he was having to run a dry-goods store because his education credentials were not recognized? Was there a sense of anger because of that?

A: There was. And, he used to tell us, "Well, i'm just as good as anybody else around here - - Anglos or whatever you have here. I have the education behind me, but, uh, they won't recognize it." So, he was - - it wasn't anger. He was just bitter - - to that extent.

Q: Tell me the story about your father selling his life insurance policy so Dr. Hector could go to Edinburg junior college, and how Dr. Hector got to and from college.

A: In those days life policies weren't very much money, but, I mean, there was some money there. So, he, uh, cashed in his policy so Dr. Hector could go to college in Edinburg which is about 40 miles away.

So, Hector used to hitchhike from Mercedes to Edinburg everyday and come back. I remember him getting up early in the morning, around six in the morning and having, uh, some frijoles that mother would fix for him 'cause those were the poor days and a little bit of bacon in there and some coffee. He would go out there to the main highway, start hitchhiking to Edinburg.

Hector would come back around eight or nine depending if he got a ride or not. So, he had a lot of exercise. I was very proud of Hector. He really went through a lot of hard times but he kept on going. He was a leader and, uh, that impressed me very much, and that's why all of us kept on going. If he can do it, we can do it.

Q: During World War II, did you get an idea of what was happening to Dr. Hector and how the war was shaping his ideas about what he wanted to do when he came home?

A: Sure did. He was talking about the poverty here compared to the poverty over there. And he was going to do something about it when he came back and he did. Right away he organized the American G.I. forum and, started working on especially the veterans here from World War II. They didn't have a place to go for hospitalization. They had to go all the way to San Antonio.

Q: How would Dr. Hector go about forming a G.I. chapter somewhere in Texas?

A: Well, for instance, we started over here at Gregory and Mathis. - - we would both go over there and talk to people around there make contacts. And then he would talk to a few veterans there, and say, "we're going to come back on a certain day. I want you to bring some people over here at the Catholic Church - - "Guadalupe" that's the one he used all the time, - - Virgin Guadalupe. "We'll be here next Saturday. So, have all these people around."

So, he and I would get together in the car and take some of the charter members with us to organize these people. I used to bring the flag in, the constitution and the books, and the registration. Then he would ask those same people, "you know anybody in Mathis? You know anybody in, uh, - - in, uh, Three Rivers? You know anybody in Victoria?" And he would get some names. "Do you have their phone numbers or their addresses?" He would call them and would repeat the same thing over and over again - - talking to the veterans that knew some other veterans in San Antonio and Lamesa and Lubbock.

Q: Can you kind of paraphrase for me what he would say to get people enthusiastic about being in a G. I. Forum chapter?

A: Well, he would bring up the fact that the problems here are this and that and the other - you've been discriminated all these years. We have to do something about it. The only way to do is organize and at that time pay a poll tax and go out and vote. Get involved in politics. Then he would show some charts that he had about people being sick and dying from diarrhea there in Mathis or in Gregory or west Texas. He had a lot of information with him. These people died from diarrhea. These people died from cholera. That's due to poverty and, uh, bad hygienic problems, no water, no toilets, outhouses and no pavement. And, uh, so that's the way he would start. "you can do it but you have to get organized. The only way to do it is to join the G.I. Forum." Then he would have elections for the officers right then and there. Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, Sergeant at Arms. So, that's the way he would do it.