WEBVTT - The Endless Fight of Macario Garcia 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.480 Hey everyone, We've put together a survey for listeners of 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:06.760 Medal of Honor and we want to hear from you. 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.240 Tell us what you love about the show, what we 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.760 can improve on, or stories you think we've missed. We're 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.840 committed to making this show even better and you can 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.960 help to take the survey. Visit bit dot lee slash 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:27.320 h survey. That's bit dot l y slash MH survey. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:41.479 The link is also in our show notes below. Pushkin 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.559 the Mariachi band played as John F. Kennedy and his 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.880 wife Jacqueline made their way through the cheering crowd. It 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.360 was early on a warm fall evening in nineteen sixty three, 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.720 and the ballroom at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.480 was packed with people. They were all there to cheer 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:15.360 their president. He was handsome as usual in a dark 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:20.480 blue suit, his eyes sparkling, shaking hands as he moved 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:25.240 towards the stage. Jackie followed close behind, elegant in a 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:30.120 black velvet jacket and her signature triple strand of pearls. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.880 If there was anything more glamorous than this couple, the 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:38.559 people of Houston hadn't seen it. It was November twenty 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:44.840 first nineteen sixty three. The next day, Kennedy would be 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:51.480 shot and killed in that faithful motorcade in Dallas. But 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:55.280 on this evening, one moment out of the last few 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.920 he had alive on Earth, he was making his way 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:03.480 forward through the room, following an honor guard of men, 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.160 snaking through the adoring throng of women with big hairdoes 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.440 and men with skinny ties. There was one man in 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.679 the honor guard that everyone in that room knew, Sergeant 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:23.720 Maccadio Garcia, a hero of World War II, the first 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:28.200 Mexican citizen to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Sergeant 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.800 Garcia and the rest of the group reached the dais 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.160 at the back of the room. The mariachi band leader 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.400 shook the first lady's hand, and then the crowd and 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.799 the musicians got quiet. Sergeant Garcia took his seat behind 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.160 the president, and JFK stepped to the microphone. 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.120 Ladies and gentlemen, my wife and I are very proud to. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:54.440 Come up to this meeting hall. You sad out the 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:59.800 world would change the very next day, But Maccadio Garcia 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.480 with JFK on stage that night, because he had changed 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:11.160 the world as well. I'm Jr. Martinez and this is 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.960 Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.000 is the highest military decoration in the United States, awarded 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.400 for gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life, 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.560 above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:29.880 be approved all the way up the chain of command, 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.680 from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House. 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.280 This show is about those heroes, what they did, what 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:41.400 it meant, and what their stories tell us about the 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:47.040 nature of courage and sacrifice. This episode is about Maccardio Garcia, 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:52.320 the man sitting behind JFK that night in Houston. He 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.400 came from enormous poverty, migrating to Texas with his family 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.960 as a toddler, working in the cotton fields as a child, 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:02.760 he stepped up when his country asked him to go 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:07.960 to war. He was a hero of remarkable grint. But 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.000 what happened to him between the day President Truman hung 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.080 the Medal of Honor around his neck and the moment 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:18.200 he stepped onto that dais behind JFK was a struggle 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:23.640 equal to anything he met on the battlefield. On a 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.320 core level, Macgadio's story is about what it means to 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.360 make a country your home, what we owe our country, 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:36.200 and what our country owes us. It's also the story 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.880 of progress, the kind of progress that outlasted any one person, 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.320 whether they're a Medal of Honor recipient or a president. 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.960 Because if there's one thing Makgadio gotta see I did, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:53.240 it was to keep pushing into battle, into the hopes 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:58.280 of a better future, with relentless heroic determination to never 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:10.039 ever go back. The Hurricane Forest sits at the far 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:12.880 western border of Germany, straight. 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:14.839 From the German folk tales of the brothers Grim. 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:20.839 It was November of nineteen forty four. The fairytale Forest 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.840 was now a battlefield, a. 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.120 Name that would come to symbolize the long drawn, heartbreak 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.480 and despair of war as surely as its fairy tale 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.880 counterparts had enshrined the nightmares of childhood. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.400 The men of the twenty second Infantry Regiment of the 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.800 US Army had one mission at the Hurricane Forest, to 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:46.720 fight their way through it, pushing deeper into Nazi territory. 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.080 It would be some of the most difficult terrain of 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:54.640 the entire European theater of the war, and some of 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.680 the hardest fighting in that forest would fall to a 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:02.320 young soldier in Company B of that regiment, Macadio. Gotta 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:07.280 see you. Maccadio had been born in Via de Castaignos, Mexico, 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.840 in the state of Coruila, just a handful of hours 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.600 from the Texas border, but he spent almost all his 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:19.400 life until now, of course, in Sugarland, Texas, a ranching 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.839 and farming community outside of Houston. He had never seen 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:29.000 anything like the Hurrican Forest. For one thing, the conifer 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:33.760 trees were so tall and tightly clustered that it felt 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:38.560 like twilight even during the middle of the day. The 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.000 very few roads that existed in the forest were laden 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:46.200 with mines, so tanks and other vehicles couldn't use them. 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.360 That meant that the American gis had to travel mostly 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.520 by foot, carrying whatever they needed. And the weather was 0:06:55.680 --> 0:07:00.320 just awful, soaking the soldiers in a near constant makes 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.840 of snow, sleet, and rain. 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.120 The winter became as vicious an enemy as any lurking 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.600 behind the trees in the Hurricane Forest. It was more 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.160 where battle tactics lost their meeting, where gains were still 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:14.679 measured in yards and feet. 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:20.600 In them, the Germans had plotted every acre of the forest, 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:26.240 so they knew exactly where to fire their artillery, and 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.880 when a shell hit it wasn't just the steel shrapnel 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:35.200 that rained down on the gis, the trees themselves exploded, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:41.720 creating lethal burst of splinters and wood, along with falling 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:47.080 trunks that were big enough to crush a man. Macadio 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.920 was in one of the bleakest scenarios imaginable, and he 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:56.080 was fighting on behalf of a country where he wasn't 0:07:56.120 --> 0:08:01.400 actually a citizen. He was still a a Mexican citizen, 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.240 but in the eyes of the US Army he was American, 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:10.200 and I think in his own eyes too. Macgaudio was 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.600 twenty four, just about five foot four, with thick, dark 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:19.560 hair and high cheekbones. He had a contagious grin, but 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.560 while small in size, he had quickly proved himself to 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:28.560 be an intrepid soldier with amazing grit and determination. He'd 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.160 been wounded on June nineteenth in France and refused to 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.600 be evacuated to the hospital, insisting on staying with his unit. 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:42.360 For that, he was awarded his first purple Heart. Then 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.800 in September he was awarded a bronze Star after he 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:50.319 snuck into German territory on a scouting mission, staying for 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:57.079 three hours, risking discovery and death every minute he was there. 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.800 Then he received another Bronze Star after he crept up 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.360 to an enemy machine gun. Nest cut the phone line 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.920 and took the German gunner prisoner. Macgadiel had the reputation 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:17.680 of being completely fearless, always pushing the boundaries as close 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.640 to the enemy as he could get. He and the 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:26.439 army were fighting their way east through France to Belgium, 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:32.600 through Belgium to Germany. This newsreel from the time sums 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:32.920 it up. 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:39.679 It was slugging and slogging showed much grabbing enough when 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:41.040 you could. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:42.560 Hyped. 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.439 It was a hell of a way to see France, 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:48.440 but we sure covered ground. 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.960 The Nazis were in retreat and winning the war felt 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:58.040 like it was within the Allies grasp, But Hitler had 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.600 ordered his army to hold the line at the Hurtkin Forest. 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.320 So now Makadio and the rest of the twenty second 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.640 were facing a situation where the enemy was dug in, 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:15.360 hiding behind trees, and where every foot of ground came 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:19.840 at a high cost. In fact, the twenty second infantry 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:25.160 would ultimately suffer more than twenty seven hundred casualties, eighty 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:29.000 five percent of its normal complement of soldiers. All that 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:33.360 loss to take six thousand yards of forest and a 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:39.040 single village. That village was called Grosshouse, but village doesn't 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.960 do it justice. It was a heavily defended strong point 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:48.640 filled with waiting enemy soldiers. By November twenty seventh, the 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.240 infantry had been trying to take the village four days, 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:58.400 getting beaten back mercilessly each time. Now it was Makkadio's 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.920 company's turn to try to move forward and retake that ground. 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.240 He and the other hundred some odd men and Company 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:11.120 B knew what they were facing, artillery, machine guns on 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.400 the high ground and an enemy that had been ordered 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:20.120 to not give an inch. Actually, the situation was even 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.520 worse than it had been in the days before, because 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:27.520 the Germans knew exactly what was coming. Company B could 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:32.839 barely make any headway. One platoon went forward and seventeen 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.280 of the eighteen men were killed or wounded. The next 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:42.240 platoon suffered a similar fate. By now Company B was 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:46.520 reduced to only thirty five men. Yet when it was 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:50.840 time for Maccadio's platoon to enter the battle. He volunteered 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:55.920 to go first, as he later said, quote, I was 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.760 acting squad leader and I just as soon do it 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:05.800 as asked somebody else to. He and another soldier, Charles Edwards, 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.640 headed towards the woods around the village. They had gotten 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.920 within twenty yards when all of a sudden, a machine 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.760 gun on a hill in front of them started firing. 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.320 They were pinned down. Mcgadil looked to his side and 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:23.839 saw Edwards get hit by a bullet in the head. 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:29.800 He died instantly, and then mccadil was shot as well, 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.679 right in the shoulder. The pain must have been excruciating, 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.280 but mccatiol refused to go back to safety to be 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:44.560 evacuated for medical help. Instead, he crawled forward alone up 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.640 the hill and through the brush, inch by painful inch. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.360 He reached a spot near the enemy's machine gun nest 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:58.760 and surprised a German soldier. Maccadio opened fire. The German 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:03.560 did too. A bullet hit mcgadio in the foot, but 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:08.760 he shot the German dead. Macgadio had taken two bullets. 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:13.319 Now it didn't stop him. He kept moving forward toward 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.640 the machine gun nest. That had shot down edwards. As 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:21.000 he later said, quote, I did not know the wound 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:25.320 was that serious. I was numb, I think, And besides, 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.920 we were moving forward and it was not the time 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.360 to stop. Mcgadiel got close to the machine gun nest 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.960 and then he took out a grenade, pulled the pin 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:41.840 and hurled it at the gunners. It exploded, destroying the gun. 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:47.120 Three Germans came running out. Mcgadio aimed his rifle and 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.800 killed those men as well. One enemy position taken out. 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.280 Then mcgadio started back down the hill towards his company. 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.640 He reached safety, but right as he began to report 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.880 to his company commander, a second machine gun open fire. 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:10.880 Without a moment of hesitation, macgadio turned around and raced 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:16.439 towards the shots back up the hill, not thinking about 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:21.840 his own safety. Just about holding the line, he stormed 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:26.040 the enemy position, grenade in hand. He had bullets in 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:31.640 his foot and shoulder. He was exhausted, he was also enraged. 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.960 He threw the grenade and it hit its mark. He 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.400 killed three more enemy soldiers and destroyed the gun in 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:46.840 the blast, and he captured four Germans too. As mcgadio 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.320 came back down the hill toward Company B. The other 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:55.640 Gis cheered and screamed. His boot was filled with blood. 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.320 His shoulder must have been searing with pain. He was 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:07.200 a mess, but he still refused medical help. He wanted 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.800 to stay with his men to fight by their side. 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.720 Because Macgadio had cleared those machine gun nests, two more 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.920 companies from the twenty second were able to charge up 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:24.400 the hill and take it. The cost had been high, 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.479 but the men of the twenty second had finally made progress. 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:50.200 Margadio had held the line. Margadio spent almost six weeks 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.640 recovering from his wounds in England, but the moment he 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.920 was well enough to go, he asked to be returned 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.720 to the front line. But by that point it was 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.440 clear that the Allies would defeat the Nazis soon enough. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.360 Macgadio was rotated back to the US in March of 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:14.600 nineteen forty five. That April, General George Patten signed off 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:18.720 on his recommendation for the Medal of Honor, noting Macgadio's 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:25.440 quote courageous leadership and supreme devotion to duty. Macgadio couldn't 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.680 wait to get home to Sugarland. Texas. He had sent 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.400 every penny of his pay back to his family. He 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:35.520 knew how much they needed it. He was one of 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:40.760 ten children. The entire family were farm laborers, as was 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.280 true for most rural households like theirs, The kids were 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.560 expected to start working in the cotton fields as soon 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.440 as they reached school age. So a medal of honor ceremony, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.960 something that placed them and their son in the national spotlight, 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:02.240 was never something they'd expected. His friend se Hernandez remembers. 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:06.080 It, well, they didn't, not worrying English, and they were 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:07.879 some question in their minds. 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.760 Where they could even dress about the White House. So 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.399 Caro Gazia the older brothers went in their place. 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.800 He took his brother Carlos to the White House as 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:23.800 his date. Then it was back to Texas and more events. 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:29.760 On September sixth, mcgaudio greeted reporters and various Houston dignitaries 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.680 at a reception in his honor, but he was more 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:36.880 than an hour late, racing into the festivities breathless and 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:41.280 soaking wet, he had to hitchhike all the way from 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:45.960 sugar Land. He apologized and said, quote, I'm a country boy, 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:50.960 you know the star treatment had to have been overwhelming. 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:55.840 Mcgaudia was now the first Mexican citizen to be held 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.720 up as a perfect example of American courage. But I 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:06.520 think Macgadio must have already considered himself fully American. He 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.879 lived in Texas since he was three, and in the war, 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:15.160 in the army, Mexican born soldiers like Macatio were treated 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:20.920 as equal to white ones. They weren't segregated. More than 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.760 half a million men of Mexican ancestry had joined the 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:29.200 ranks of the services during World War II, and of those, 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:37.919 fifteen thousand, including Makatio, were actually Mexican citizens. At the 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.000 start of the war, Mexico had agreed that the United 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.080 States military was allowed to draft Mexican nationals to serve 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.600 in the armed forces. In nineteen forty, Congress required that 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.440 foreign born people who declared their intention to become citizens 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.760 would be subject to military service. Mexicans could file a 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.240 form of exemption, but if they did register for the draft, 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:06.040 it would secure them US residents and ensure them US 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:11.159 citizenship after they completed their military service. Putting themselves in 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.160 harms way for America was a risk that many were 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.840 willing to take in exchange for full acceptance as citizens 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:21.280 in the United States, and the risks were high. Of 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:25.000 the fifteen thousand Mexican nationals who joined the armed forces 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:29.040 in the war, one thousand, four hundred and ninety two 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:35.280 died or were injured, taken prisoner, or disappeared. After that 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:40.640 kind of sacrifice, Mexican veterans like Macadio returned home, assuming 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.400 that the United States would see them the way they 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:49.119 felt inside, as full fledged Americans. But Texas wasn't the 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:55.119 Army ernest Idea, a fellow Mexican American Army vet remembers 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.800 going from the service back to South Texas. 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:03.240 When I came back, we were considered second class citizens, 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.960 even though we had spent not only our lives, but 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.119 four years of our lives in the Armies fighting for 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:10.119 the people back home. 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:15.919 Mcgadil's little brother, Loupe Gotticia, was only two when mcgadil 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.719 returned from the war, but he remembers how segregated it 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:24.760 was in Texas, not only then but for years, and 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:29.160 discrimination wasn't illegal either. It was common to see signs 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:33.760 saying no dogs, no Negroes, no Mexicans. 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:39.040 And that era Hispanics and Blacks were not allowed eating 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.840 here in restaurants, the whites always had priority. 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:44.240 It was not easy. 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.080 That always went on for a long time. 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.160 Mcgadio had just come off of one of the most 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:55.040 exhilarating moments of his life, meeting the President of the 0:20:55.200 --> 0:21:00.520 United States being honored for his bravery. He was about 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.960 to collide headlong with one of the realities of the 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:09.040 country he'd returned to. Late on the night of September tenth, 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:13.520 nineteen forty five, just four days after that event with 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:17.159 the Houston dignitaries, mcgadio and a friend got off the 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.879 bus from Fort Hood in Richmond, Texas. There was a 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.560 low slung restaurant there on the side of the highway. 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:28.520 The words chicken Dinners were spelled out in big block 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:33.640 letters along the building side. It was called the Oasis Cafe. 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.160 Mcgaudio wanted a cup of coffee, maybe something to eat. 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:41.640 There weren't many places opened that late on a Monday night, 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:47.600 but the Oasis Cafe was still serving. Mcgaudio's friend told him, Hey, 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:53.040 let's not go in there. The friend knew the Oasis 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:59.960 didn't welcome Mexican Americans, but according to his brother. Mcgaudio thought, 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:04.440 how can they turn me down. I'm wearing my uniform 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:08.879 and the medal of honor. He pushed opened the door 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:09.880 and walked in. 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.160 Says he had the nation's highest award in the Congression 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.200 of Metlajuana. He figured that a cup of coffee wouldn't 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:20.640 be that much trouble, but they refused to serve him, 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.000 regardless of his decorations. 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:24.520 Here's Ernest again. 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:27.159 The restaurant has said, I don't give a dan what 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.200 he's wearing. He's a Mexican and I will not serve him. 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:35.560 For the record, the woman who owned the restaurant insisted 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.199 that mcgadiol was drunk and belligerent and that's why he 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:43.920 was denied service. Her son, Lou Payton, was there that night. 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.560 He was only seventeen at the time. He missed the 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:51.359 initial exchange between his mother and Magadio, but he doesn't 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:56.480 deny that the Oasis Cafe wasn't quote for Mexican Americans. 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.800 We had very few blacks or Mexican argons come in 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:05.000 and ask for service because we didn't cater to their needs. 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:07.320 We didn't have their kind of music, we didn't have 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:08.000 their kind of. 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:16.720 Food, which let's be honest, doesn't sound particularly welcoming. Whatever 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:20.679 the truth that mcgatiel was told to leave because of 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:25.439 his ethnicity, or because he was drunk, or both, the 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:33.879 oasis exploded in violence. Punches were thrown, glasses broken, salt 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:38.280 and pepper shakers, ketchup bottles. Everything suddenly seemed to be 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:42.440 flying through the air. From outside, mcgaudiol's friend could hear 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:46.199 the shattering and the yelling. He caught glimpses of the 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:49.760 commotion through the long line of windows that stretched across 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:53.159 the front of the cafe, pouring their light onto the 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:55.040 darkened parking lot where he stood. 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:57.360 These guys tore up the brushroom. 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:01.760 Mcgadil had walked through bullets in the and force, only 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:04.080 now to be held down on the counter of the 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:08.560 oasis and hit by a baseball bat. And then he 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:12.560 was dragged outside into the night and the police were 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:14.960 called to arrest him. 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:18.920 He was taken into the Counta Dale and held there 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:25.959 until some higher army authorities came and had him released again. 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:31.720 Denying Mexican American service wasn't illegal. In fact, it was 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:35.520 so common that the newspapers didn't even pick up the story. Initially, 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:39.040 The editors of one local paper said they didn't want 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:41.960 to cover the story because they didn't want to embarrass 0:24:42.080 --> 0:24:45.720 a war hero. But possibly this kind of thing was 0:24:45.800 --> 0:24:49.880 just so unremarkable that it didn't merit the paper and ink. 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:54.960 But mcgadio was not just another person. He was a 0:24:55.000 --> 0:25:00.119 Medal of Honor recipient, a person to whom extraordinary thing 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:06.119 had happened and were about to happen again. A local 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:10.040 lawyer and activist named John J. Herrera found out about 0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:15.040 mcgaudio's situation. He surely recognized a perfect test case to 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:20.000 fight back against anti Mexican discrimination, so he took on 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:24.439 mcgaudio's cause. The first thing Henda did was call the press. 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:29.439 Pretty soon the national columnist Walter Winchell picked up the story. 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:32.760 If you never heard of Walter Winchell, he was the 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:37.679 voice of the country. Everyone listened to Winchell, and now 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:41.560 you're about to heads up. He gets some of the 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:45.960 details wrong, but he gets the feeling exactly right. 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:51.560 Attention to Mistermissige the United States, an American soldier recently 0:25:51.560 --> 0:25:53.840 decorated with the Congressional Medal of Honor by the President 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:57.120 of the United States, was terribly beaten with a baseball 0:25:57.240 --> 0:26:01.800 back in Sugarland, Texas. This hero, who fought for our 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:05.520 country and won the highest award our people can get 0:26:05.520 --> 0:26:09.600 to any man, is named Sergeant Marcio Gotia, a Mexican. 0:26:10.359 --> 0:26:13.600 The elected attack took place at a soft drink pala 0:26:13.720 --> 0:26:16.640 where Sargeant Gosha try to buy a soft drink. He 0:26:16.840 --> 0:26:19.600 was refused service although he was wearing the United States 0:26:19.720 --> 0:26:24.159 uniform at the time. When Sergeant Gosha protested, the beating 0:26:24.200 --> 0:26:25.680 with the baseball bat followed. 0:26:27.240 --> 0:26:29.560 And now here is the part that made the local 0:26:29.600 --> 0:26:32.959 politicians of Fort Ben County, Texas and the rest of 0:26:33.000 --> 0:26:35.360 America perk up their ears. 0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:41.000 The persons responsible for this disgraceful assault could hardly be Texans, 0:26:42.040 --> 0:26:46.359 and Texas has too many sons wearing the Congressional Medal 0:26:46.359 --> 0:26:50.679 of Honor to permit any homegrown fascist to spatter it 0:26:51.119 --> 0:26:52.480 with any hero's blood. 0:26:54.320 --> 0:26:58.040 But things only got worse from Macadio because the ensuing 0:26:58.080 --> 0:27:02.359 press was absolutely terrible both of Fort Ben and Suddenly 0:27:02.680 --> 0:27:05.720 those local politicians needed to put the heat on someone 0:27:05.840 --> 0:27:10.239 other than themselves. And that is why in October of 0:27:10.400 --> 0:27:14.800 nineteen forty five, after returning home from Washington, where he 0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:19.800 received his honorable discharge from the Army. Macgadio was formerly 0:27:19.960 --> 0:27:25.600 charged with criminal assault and battery. Almost instantly, the case 0:27:25.640 --> 0:27:29.720 became a rallying point for Mexican Americans in Texas and beyond. 0:27:30.480 --> 0:27:33.800 Herea was involved with the League of the United Latin 0:27:33.840 --> 0:27:39.119 American Citizens or LULAC, at that point, the largest Latino 0:27:39.200 --> 0:27:43.320 civil rights organization in the country. He started raising money 0:27:43.320 --> 0:27:46.600 for mcgadio's defense and using what happened at the Oasis 0:27:47.040 --> 0:27:51.200 to bring attention to the discrimination against Latinos and Texas. 0:27:52.200 --> 0:27:55.440 People all over the country sent money to support the defense. 0:27:56.240 --> 0:27:59.800 The prosecutors of Fort Benn County refused to back down. 0:28:00.680 --> 0:28:04.080 The trial went forward, but it had to be postponed 0:28:04.359 --> 0:28:08.720 again and again because the venues weren't big enough to 0:28:08.800 --> 0:28:14.199 accommodate all the media who wanted to attend. In the 0:28:14.200 --> 0:28:18.240 midst of this legal wrangling, maccadio flew to Mexico City 0:28:18.680 --> 0:28:23.000 to receive the Medito Militare, the top honor from military 0:28:23.080 --> 0:28:29.080 service in Mexico. At the ceremony, Manuel Avila Camacho, the 0:28:29.119 --> 0:28:34.920 President of Mexico, proudly announced that quote soldiers of Mexican 0:28:35.080 --> 0:28:40.280 origin are the best fighters in the world. The addition 0:28:40.480 --> 0:28:43.800 of one more medal to macgadio's chest brought the case 0:28:44.000 --> 0:28:50.200 another round of publicity, and then in June, supposedly because 0:28:50.240 --> 0:28:54.560 Harry Truman himself stepped in on maccadio's behalf, his case 0:28:54.600 --> 0:28:59.440 got a new lead defense attorney, James Alred, the former 0:28:59.520 --> 0:29:04.640 governor of Texas, and soon enough the charges against mcgadio 0:29:04.760 --> 0:29:09.840 were finally dropped. Once again, mcgadio had held the line 0:29:10.240 --> 0:29:30.000 and prevailed. Mcgadio gotta seea became a US citizen on 0:29:30.160 --> 0:29:34.880 June twenty fifth, nineteen forty seven. Mcgadil went to work 0:29:34.920 --> 0:29:38.120 for the Veterans Administration. He made up for the lack 0:29:38.160 --> 0:29:41.480 of education he had as a child. He went back 0:29:41.520 --> 0:29:46.440