I think this is the most important thing that has happened to the Mexican-American people -that we now feel that we belong to this country. That this is truly our "country" and we may keep our pride and our dignity. That we are Mexican in origin and in blood, but we also now have the feeling that we are accepted as Americans also!

 DR. HECTOR P. GARCIA

Listen to a 1981 audio interview from the radio program the Mexican American Experience in which Dr. Hector gives a response to the "states' rights" speech by then President Ronald Reagan with Host Linda Fregoso. The Mexican American Experience collection is made available thanks to the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, with generous help from Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services and the Center for Mexican American Studies.

Below is a transcript of another 1969 interview with David G. McComb. This interview is part of the LBJ Library which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration

Transcript

INTERVIEWEE: HECTOR GARCIA
INTERVIEWER: DAVID G. MC COMB
July 9, 1969

MCCOMB: Let me identify the tape first of all. This is an interview with Dr. Hector Garcia. I'm in his office in Corpus Christi, Texas, at 1315 Bright Street. The date is July 9, 1969, and my name is David McComb.

Now you gave me this copy of the GI Forum program of the 21^st Annual Founders' Day Banquet which has a capsule biography of you here, which I will place into the record so that anybody using this tape will have the opportunity to use this. There are several points about this that I'd like to ask you about. In the first place it says you were born in Mexico, and I'd like to know when you came to the United States.

GARCIA:  Well, Mr. McComb, I came to the United States when I was only about three and a half to four years old. I was not quite four and I was a little bit over three, so I would say approximately four years old.