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299 24 Hispanics Stand Tall I n the year 1950, the Houston Police Department leadership perceived a problem with the Hispanic community. A Hispanic suspect killed an Anglo , prompting police to believe they needed a “Latin American Squad” to deal with cases involving similar circumstances. A called meeting at the Civil Courts Building attracted 200 people, including a number of prospective police cadets. The League of United Latin American Citizens wanted Hispanic officers selected “according to the same standards as real policemen.” The police representative present asked that each Hispanic male interested in joining the force to please stand up. Then he outlined basic requirements of a prospective cadet one at a time: You must be between the ages of 21 and 35, have a high school diploma and no criminal record. Some portion of the prospects sat down when they failed to meet these qualifications.1 “And you must stand 5-feet-10 1/2 inches tall,” the recruiter said. Most of the remaining young men sat down. HPD immediately fell short of the number needed for a Latin American Squad. Only five remained and just one, Raul Martinez, a share cropper’s son, really wanted the job. He was twentyseven years old and saw nothing but problems with his job as an orderly that paid fifty cents an hour. Martinez soon got a call from highly respected Mexican restaurant owner, Felix Tijerina, who said to him, “We need you. Why don’t you go down there and apply?”2 Thirty-nine years later, Martinez said he felt he could make a difference and went down to City Hall, officially applied and found it hard to believe his acceptance until he saw it in writing. Meanwhile, he trained to become a barber and earned seventy-five cents a cut every Saturday at the Gallegos Barber Shop on Preston. The barbering and his orderly job put Martinez in a high income bracket. The police job actually meant a pay cut and required him to work six days a week for a $60 salary. The entire community encouraged him to become an officer since Houston had no uniformed Hispanic police officer at the time. Martinez faced 300 Houston Blue tough recruiting questions from Ray Floyd, the Civil Service director at City Hall. Floyd cited Martinez’ heavy accent and asked him how he would handle insulting comments from Anglos he might have to arrest. Martinez responded by saying he would be trained and paid to be called names he was called already.3 Martinez passed the written examination and the physical before undergoing more interrogation. The questioners gave him spirit when they never brought up the fact he was Hispanic. He entered the academy in March 1950, becoming the first academy-trained Hispanic police officer in HPD history. He went on to earn a college degree from the University of Houston under the GI Bill and served twenty-three years on the force before Harris County Judge Bill Elliott appointed him constable of Precinct 6. He served five terms there. He died on August 23, 1990. On September 17, 2003, Precinct 2 County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia led a dedication ceremony of the Raul C. Martinez East End Courthouse Annex. l Victor Trevino grew up on Houston’s eastside in the 1950s, becoming adept with a broomstick from the time the broom stood taller than he was. Over the years as one of nine children parented by a Mexico-born day-laborer for Southern Pacific Railroad and his stay-at-home wife, Trevino worked in several mom-and-pop grocery stores, graduating from sweeper to stock boy, then sacker, and on to stocker, meat cutter and cashier. As he became a teenager, Trevino loved helping people, a satisfaction that inspired a desire to become a police officer after he graduated from Austin High School. By 1970 the department lowered the police academy eligibility age to nineteen. Trevino was nineteen, biting at the bit to join up, but he faced a requirement he couldn’t measure up to.4 The HPD height requirement was five-foot-ten; Trevino stood five-footseven . The height requirement ruled out all but the tallest Hispanics. So Trevino became a butcher at an east side Weingarten’s during the Herman Short era in HPD when only Anglo officers patrolled Hispanic neighborhoods. There was only one Hispanic cop for the area and investigations were tough since Hispanics wouldn’t talk to police. Trevino thought that intelligence and policing ability had...

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