2 students receive scholarships at event
Priscilla Barba
pbarba@foghornnews.com
Del Mar College celebrated Dr. Hector P. Garcia Texas State Recognition Day with the civil rights icon’s daughter, Cecilia Garcia-Akers, and awarded two scholarships during the Hispanic Heritage Month event.
The event, held in the Retama Room of the Harvin Center on Sept. 21, honored Garcia, the founder of the American GI Forum. Garcia, who died in 1996, received the Medal of Freedom and several other honors for protecting and serving the community.
The American GI Forum gave two $500 scholarships to students Clarissa Rivera, a radiologic technology major, and Zeferino Tinajero, a nurse education major.
it just reinsures that I’m doing something right,” Rivera said. (Priscilla Barba/Foghorn)
“It (the scholarship) also reinsures that what I’m doing isn’t going unnoticed,” Rivera said.
Mariachi Del Mar and Feria de las Flores Folklorico Dancers entertained the audience of almost 100 people.
Garcia helped in desegregation in schools and public facilities. His activities of fighting for equality and respect foreshadowed the struggle of the Chicano Movement. After serving three years in the Army, he opened a private medical practice in Corpus Christi with his brother where he treated all patients regardless of financial circumstances.
“We wanted people to go to school and get educated and be independent,” Garcia-Akers said of her father’s foundation.
