Tuesday, July 30, 1996

Visitation, funeral services scheduled for Garcia

By Associated Press

CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) - Called the "Martin Luther King of Hispanics," Dr. Hector P. Garcia will be eulogized this week by civil rights leaders, friends and family members
Funeral organizers estimated that up to 5,000 people would attend a daylong closed-casket visitation Monday. Thousands more were expected for a 10 a.m. Tuesday funeral at Corpus Christi Cathedral.
Garcia, who founded the American GI Forum in 1948 to fight for Hispanic veterans' rights, died Friday at Memorial Medical Center. He was 82.

The man President Clinton called a national hero has drawn telephone calls from across the nation following his unsuccessful battle with pneumonia.

Callers to Memorial Funeral Home have expressed "sadness that they've lost such a great leader and hero to the Hispanic or Latin community," funeral director Dianna Tovar said.

Amador Garcia, the doctor's cousin and a family spokesman, said relatives have received dozens of calls, cards and other expressions of sympathy at the news of the leader's death.

"They're expressing dismay, shock, grief and words of encouragement," he said. "Everybody's trying to comfort each other at this substantial loss."

Garcia's cousin said the family appreciates the sympathy.

"They are very gratified and very touched by the feelings of love and condolences," he said.

Gilbert Casares, Garcia's longtime friend and a founding member of the GI Forum, predicted earlier that the civil rights leader would be "remembered as the Martin Luther King of Hispanics."

A rosary was scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at Selena Auditorium.

The Corpus Christi Veterans Band was to play at the rosary and grave site, said Memorial Funeral Home owner Claudio Herrera.

The Cathedral Pontifical Chorale will sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic at the funeral because family members had said Garcia requested the music. The chorale will be joined by members of the Cathedral Youth Chorale and the Corpus Christi Symphony.

Family members requested that memorials to honor Garcia be made to the American GI Forum Scholarship Fund.

Donations may be sent to the American GI Forum Scholarship Fund, in care of Tony Canales, P.O. Box 5624, Corpus Christi, Texas 78465.