Felix Longoria's Wake: Bereavement, Racism, and the Rise of Mexican American Activism

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS TELLING OF THE CONTROVERSY surrounding Felix Longoria’s wake was a group effort. Others have contributed significantly along the way. I am merely the person to complete the project. Dr. Frederick A. Cervantes , one of the best friends I have ever had, agreed to write this account in 1984, in return for Dr. Héctor P. García’s donation of his personal papers to Corpus Christi State University, now Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). The doctor wanted to be sure that whichever institution obtained these materials would do something with them, and Fred’s commitment to write the Felix Longoria book represented the first down payment on our pledge to use Dr. Garc ía’s documents. Tragically, Fred Cervantes died two years later on March 22, 1986, in an auto/motorcycle accident. At that point Dr. Garc ía requested that I write the story. I tried to point out to him that as a colonial Mexican historian I did not have the background in the twentieth -century Tejano experience to successfully complete such an undertaking . Nevertheless, he insisted and I agreed. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS F E L I X L O N G O R I A ’ S W A K E XVI From that point onward I received a good deal of help in overcoming my ignorance about Mexican American and Texas history. Robert Miranda , a former graduate student at TAMUCC, did the early field research on the project between 1986 and 1987. He also drafted over one hundred pages of text on the incident, which provided me direction in my journey toward a final manuscript. Joe Bertram Frantz, a distinguished Texas historian and a personal friend of LBJ, John Connally, and many of the Texas politicians mentioned in this book, aided me immeasurably. After floundering on the project for three years I invited Joe to co-author the story with me, and he graciously agreed. For the next four years Joe intermittently engaged in research on the Longoria incident. His involvement provided entrée to many of the principal characters within the post–World War II Texas political community. He also schooled me in Texas history. It was like apprenticing with a master craftsman. He knew more about the state’s past than I could have learned in a lifetime. Within two years he was referring to me as a “near-native Texan”; Joe had a way of making people feel better about themselves. Frantz provided the background knowledge necessary to place the Longoria incident within 1949 life in Texas. I only hope that I have successfully imparted his wisdom about such matters in the pages that follow. Had he lived and co-authored this work it would have been a better book. As it is, the story is only as good as I could make it because I am no Joe B. Frantz. Dr. Héctor P. García also contributed a great deal to this manuscript. Much of it is based on the papers he collected over the course of a lifetime ’s dedication to civil rights. Dr. Héctor, as all of us who knew him called him, also gave me many hours of his time in taped conversations about the Longoria incident, the American G.I. Forum, and various other topics related to civil rights in South Texas. Between 1986 and 1996 he arranged to introduce me to many of the surviving actors in the Longoria drama. Just as importantly, he gave me the intellectual space and license to seek my own lines of inquiry and draw my own conclusions from what I found. It was a privilege to have known and worked with this remarkable person. Unquestionably, Frederick A. Cervantes, Joe Bertram Frantz, and Dr. Héctor Pérez García contributed as much to the writing of this book as I did. That is why I dedicate the work to their memory. Robert Miranda follows only this trio in deserving my thanks. Three other individuals made significant contributions to the com- A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S XVII pletion of the manuscript. This group read various versions of the study in their entirety over the past two years. Robert Wooster, R. Anthony Quiroz, and José Limón, all good scholars and students of the Texas experience , made critical suggestions that improved this account. Several other individuals helped in different...