Dr. Hector P. Garcia is not as well known to many Americans as Cesar Chavez. However, Dr. Garcia did much more to advance Mexican American rights than Cesar Chavez ever did. It could be a bias on my part, as he was our family doctor. My father was a member of the American GI Forum.
Born in Mexico in 1914, García grew up in Mercedes, Texas, in the lower Rio Grande Valley. He earned undergraduate and medical degrees from The University of Texas and served in the Army with distinction in World War II.
In 1946, García opened a medical practice in Corpus Christi, where he witnessed the struggles of veterans and migrant workers. His work inspired a lifetime commitment to social reform. García became known as the “doctor to the barrios,” offering low- and no-cost treatment to impoverished patients.
In 1948, García founded the American GI Forum, organizing veterans to fight for educational and medical benefits, and later, against poll taxes and school segregation. A proud member of the Greatest Generation, García sought the inclusion of Mexican Americans into mainstream America.
In 1984, President Reagan awarded García the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. García was the first Mexican American ever to receive the honor. Source
Dr. Garcia and his family were often the subject of hate mail as evidenced below.
For more of how much Dr. Garcia did to better the lives of Mexican-Americans go to this website.
Activist
As a Mexican immigrant, Dr. Garcia experienced firsthand the racial injustices that defined the lives of countless Americans. Working with and through the AGIF, he became a tireless champion for civil rights. He firmly believed that citizens could be agents of change, and advocated non-violent, civic solutions to discrimination and segregation. From school sit-ins to voter registration drives, Dr. Garcia led a movement that effected real change in his community and far beyond.
Encountering Racism
Dr. Garcia made it his mission to put an end to the deeply entrenched racism and discrimination that defined the Mexican American experience in the first half of the 20th century. Civic activism was central to Dr. Garcia’s approach. He effectively mobilized the AGIF expansive network to organize marches, launch protests and boycotts, and support civil rights legislation and lawsuits.
Below is where the American GI Forum supported “Operation Wetback.”
In 1953, a pamphlet ominously tilted What Price Wetbacks? circulated widely throughout the American Southwest. Its authors warned that a “wetback invasion” was underway, one that posed “a threat to our health, our economy, [and] our American way of life.”[1] A contemporary observer might be forgiven for assuming such was the work of a xenophobic outlet or a nativist group. In reality, the now-infamous pamphlet was the work of a respected Mexican American advocacy organization, the American GI Forum, with the backing of the Texas Federation of Labor. Source
Here is a link where the pamphlet, What Price Wetback, can be read for free.
Soon after the start of Operation Wetback, Dr. Garcia, like Cesar Chavez, realized that those Gringos rounding up the Mexicans couldn’t tell the difference between a legal Mexican and an illegal Mexican. To the gueros, all people that look like me (Meme) are Mexicans. So they decided rounding up Mexicans wasn’t such a great idea. FYI, Meme can’t tell the difference between a legal Mexican and illegal Mexican, even Native Americans look like me.
What was true yesterday is still true today. When Trump came down those escalators and called illegals rapists, and murders he was painting a bullseye on the back of all people that look like Meme. That MAGA person drove from Dallas to El Paso to kill “Mexicans.” Trump and Gregg Abbot can take credit for those killings.
Below is a video of Cesar Chavez supporting the deportation of illegal immigration.