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Chapter Six: The Burial
- University of Texas Press
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CHAPTER SIX IN THE END there was no wake for Felix Longoria. The decision to lay the young soldier to rest in Arlington National Cemetery made the ceremony impractical. Beatrice and Dr. García would have had to arrange it in Washington, D.C., and that was just not possible. Few of Felix ’s relatives and friends would have had the money, time, or inclination to travel all the way to the nation’s capital to attend the event.1 Beyond that, everyone got so excited about the burial itself, in the country’s most revered cemetery for fallen war heroes, and attended by important officials from the U.S. and Mexican governments, that not a single concern was recorded for the wake, the ceremony around which the Longoria controversy had revolved. Felix’s final burial took place on February 16, 1949, at two in the afternoon just as Senator Johnson had said it would. For the family, it meant closure on Felix’s death, but not on the controversy his neverheld wake had generated. To this day Beatrice shies away from talking T H E B U R I A L T H E B U R I A L 179 about the incident or the interment. Both proved as painful and traumatic as the news of Felix’s death. The funeral did, however, finally lay Felix to rest in a way that redeemed his and their honor, something very important to Beatrice, the Longorias, and the Hispanic community in South Texas. She remains thankful for that.2 To Dr. García and the American G.I. Forum, the burial in Arlington represented the most significant victory they had won in their struggle for veterans’ and Hispanics ’ civil rights to that date. For Lyndon Johnson, Felix’s funeral offered favorable national exposure and another political victory over his Texas Regular adversaries back home.3 For the U.S. State Department the reinterment of Felix Longoria cleared a stumbling block to the extension of the bracero program. Five months later Mexico signed the renewal treaty, but again excluded Texas from participation in the agreement.4 The Longoria controversy had strengthened in Mexico the state’s reputation for mistreatment of Mexicanos. For the nation as a whole, Felix’s reburial represented a reaffirmation of the ideals for which so many American servicemen and -women had given their lives and limbs during the war. It also symbolized a public expression of respect and gratitude toward the nation’s war dead. For Nueces Strip Tejanos the burial brought recognition and validation of their American identity. The funeral did not please everyone. It infuriated Anglo residents of Three Rivers and their Texas Regular allies across the state. For them the ceremony signified a repudiation and indictment of their way of life. For the Good Neighbor Commission the funeral reflected its failure to walk a political fence between more bigoted Texas Regular Democrats and more liberal National Democrats within the state. It doomed the agency to continued political marginalization by the Texas Regulars that had created it and the Tejano and Mexicano populations it sought to serve. The January 20 front page editorial in the Three Rivers newspaper merely strengthened Beatrice’s decision not to accept her father-inlaw ’s Good Neighbor Commission–endorsed suggestion to honor Felix at Arlington, then bury him in Texas. Plans for sending the Longoria family to Washington had already begun soon after the January 11 Lamar school meeting. The outpouring of public support, especially by Tejanos, illustrated the dispute’s impact on their political consciousness . Mexican Americans saw and felt many things in the Longoria dispute , but above all they saw discrimination, something all of them had [54.89.24.147] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:56 GMT) F E L I X L O N G O R I A ’ S W A K E 180 felt nearly every day of their lives. Reason and emotion had bound them together during the controversy, and these forces brought them even closer during the burial arrangements. Everyone wanted to participate in one way or another. A small number of family members would actually attend the graveside ceremony. Many others would sacrifice to allow those few to be there. Radio stations, newspapers, and word of mouth informed the Tejano community of the Longorias’ need.5 Supporters often sent homemade cards, many with small amounts of money neatly folded or placed inside, fifteen cents, twenty...