Marcario   Garcia

MARCARIO GARCIA (1920 ~ 1972). Medal of Honor Recipient Marcario Garcia was born into a poor family with nine other children on January 2, 1920, in Villa de Castano, Mexico. His family moved to Texas in 1923, eventually becoming farm workers in Sugar Land, near Houston.

He worked in the fields with his family until he was drafted on November 11, 1942. Garcia was wounded in the landing at Normandy on D-Day and rejoined his unit after he recovered. He served in Company B, First Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division of the Army as a Private. While acting as squad leader near Grosshau, Germany on November 27, 1944, Garcia single-handedly took two enemy machine gun nests that were blocking his unit's advance. Though wounded in the shoulder and foot, he advanced alone to the two machine guns, killed six German soldiers, captured four, and destroyed the enemy defenses with grenades. Only then did he allow himself to be evacuated to receive medical care. For his actions he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he received after the war. He turned down a battlefield commission that would have made him a Lieutenant, choosing instead to rejoin his unit.

Garcia, now a Staff Sergeant, returned home after the war in February of 1945. After being assigned to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, he was sent Washington D.C. for the presentation of his Medal of Honor. Though most recipients were provided with better housing, Garcia slept with the cooks at the War College while waiting for President Truman to return from a trip abroad for the presentation.

In September of 1945, while he was wearing his Army uniform, he was denied service at a restaurant in Richmond, Texas, because he was Hispanic. Angered by such treatment after serving in the War, Garcia argued with the cafe owner, who called the police and had him arrested. Garcia became a symbol of the discrimination returning Mexican soldiers faced, and his case was supported by several civic organizations, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, which raised his legal expenses as well as enough for Garcia to buy his first home in Alief.

In 1946, he traveled to Mexico City, where he was given Mexico's highest honor, the Merito Militar. Garcia was granted United States citizenship in 1947. He earned a high school diploma in 1951 and married Alicia Reyes on May 18, 1952; they had three children. Garcia worked as a counselor with the Veterans Administration in Houston from 1946 until his death in 1972.

On December 24, 1972, Garcia died in a car accident and was buried in the National Cemetery in Houston. In 1981 the City of Houston named a section of 69th Street in his honor and in 1983 the Army Reserve Center in Houston was named after him. A middle school in Sugar Land also bears his name.

Bibliography: "Above and Beyond: The Medal of Honor in Texas," Capitol Visitors Center, State Preservation Board of Texas. Dallas Morning News: September 15, 1962. Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, University of Texas, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/GG/fga76.html, September 26, 2005. Houston Post: September 7, 1945; December 26, 1972.