A Hero Forgotten: Gus Garcia and the Litigation of Hernandez v. Texas (1954)

Abstract

A Hero Forgotten:Gus Garcia and the Litigation of Hernandez v. Texas (1954) Gabriel Valle (bio) In 1951, in the east end of Jackson County, Texas, if Mexican-American attorney Gus Garcia had attempted to stop by the local restaurant for lunch before his next trial, he would have been greeted with a sign reading "No Mexicans Served."1 When Garcia walked into the Jackson County courtroom to defend his client Pete Hernandez, on trial for the murder of Joe Espinoza, he would have been greeted by a sea of white faces on the jury.2 Finally, should Garcia have needed to use the restroom at the courthouse, there would have been two available; one room unmarked, and the other with two signs above reading "Colored men" and "Hombres Aqui."3 Gustavo 'Gus' Garcia lived amongst and advocated against these pervasive reminders that, to white Texans, Mexican Americans were distinct and decidedly second-class citizens. As a young and promising Mexican-American civil rights attorney, Garcia took it upon himself to challenge these injustices. The talented attorney's trailblazing impact on Mexican-American civil rights deserves wider recognition.4 His dedication to Mexican-American civil rights transformed a local open-and-shut murder case with an unsympathetic plaintiff and factual deficiencies into a brief but national reckoning on Mexican-American civil rights. A Cantina, A Gun, and An Opportunity Although Gus Garcia rocketed to national fame during the Hernandez case, he was already a respected San Antonio attorney when Pete Hernandez initially approached him seeking representation.5 By all accounts, Garcia was a prodigy. A native Texan, Garcia was born in Laredo to one of the state's oldest families, which first settled there in 1765.6 Garcia graduated valedictorian of his high school class, going on to study at the [End Page 31] University of Texas at Austin and became the first Mexican-American debate team captain.7 Garcia graduated in 1936, and received his LL.B. at the University of Texas at Austin two years later.8 After graduation, Garcia initially served as an assistant San Antonio city attorney, followed by a stint as an assistant criminal district attorney. When the U.S. entered World War II, Garcia served in the Pacific Theater, earning the rank of First Lieutenant and serving as a Judge Advocate General in Yokohama, Japan.9 After the war, Garcia returned to Texas and began to make a name for himself. He possessed an "awesome eloquence," in both Spanish and English, allowing him to enrapture courtrooms and crowds alike as he simultaneously nurtured a career in the law and speaking on behalf of local Mexican-American candidates for public office.10 Anywhere Garcia went in Texas, the local attorneys and Mexican-American population would praise this "brilliant" young attorney, who possessed "one of the finest legal minds anywhere."11 It was Garcia's work on Delgado v. Bastrop ISD in 1949 that established him as a preeminent Mexican-American civil rights attorney. Delgado was a challenge to Mexican-American school segregation in Texas. The case went before Judge Ben H. Rice on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Judge Rice's ruling ordered a permanent injunction from the "segregating of pupils of Mexican or other Latin American dissent in separate schools," as well as in "facilities and services."12 The injunction did allow, however, for separate classes within the same school for first grade students, "solely for instructional purposes," especially if the Click for larger view View full resolution Delgado v. Bastrop ISD (1949) was a successful challenge to Mexican-American school segregation in Texas, although it allowed for some separate classroom instruction. Gustavo "Gus" Garcia (right) made his name litigating that case, along with Hector P. Garcia and Hector de Pena (left and middle). [End Page 32] student's English was not sufficient.13 A full five years before Brown, Garcia had won a watershed school desegregation victory, chipping away at Texas Mexican-American school segregation. Hearing of Garcia's reputation as an attorney and champion for his people, the twenty-six-year-old Hernandez sought him out for representation. The facts were not promising. On February 23...