This research guide provides overview for students interested in the late judge, Reynaldo Guerra Garza of Brownsville. Garza, a son of Mexican immigrants who became the country's first Hispanic federal judge when he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. He served 43 years as a US Judge first for the Southern District of Texas and later for the U.S. Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. This guide highlights Judge Garza's life and collections in Brownsville and Edinburg, including his legal and civic career, personal papers, photographs, books, and contributions to higher education.
Reynaldo Guerra Garza (1915 – 2004) was the first Mexican-American appointed to a federal court. He was born and raised in Brownsville, TX. He attended Brownsville Junior College (now TSC),earning an associates degree in 1935. Garza went on to receive his BA from the University of Texas at Austin (1937) and LLB from University of Texas School of Law (1939). Upon earning his law degree, he returned home before answering "the call", when he served in the US Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1945. After WWII, Garza resumed his law practice in Brownsville until 1961. He was a highly respected community leader, the first Mexican-American elected to the Brownsville school board, and served with the local chapter of LULAC to improve the civil rights of Hispanic Americans.
In 1961, Reynaldo G. Garza, of Brownsville, became the first Mexican American federal judge in U.S. history when he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy. He rose from the obscurity of South Texas to become a major player in Democratic politics. His good friends at UT included future governor John B. Connally, Texas Supreme Court Justice Joe Greenhill, and U.S. Rep. Jake “J.J.” Pickle.
Garza served as Judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas (1961–1979), including as Chief Judge (1974–1979). President Jimmy Carter appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1979, where he served as Chief Judge from 1982 until his retirement in 2004. During his tenure, Judge Garza presided over numerous prominent civil rights cases throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, including one that challenged the tradition of having racially segregated unions and another in which a school district suspended a student for distributing antiwar leaflets. One of his most celebrated civil rights decisions was the 1972 Medrano v. Allee case, which struck down laws used by the Texas Rangers to break up United Farm Workers strikes.
Reynaldo G. Garza Collection. The collection consists of personal papers chronicling Judge Reynaldo G. Garza's legal career, and civic engagement, as well as his involvement with higher education in South Texas (1950 - 2004). UTRGV University Library, Special Collections & Archives, Brownsville campus.
Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient of 1993. Hon. Reynaldo G. Garza is a former Senior Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. Texas Southmost College Alumnus ’35
UTB/TSC University Archives - Institutional Advancement Division - News and Information. The collection, part of the UTB/TSC University Archives - Institutional Advancement Division, contains commencement programs, audio/visual recordings, booklets, newsletters, promotional material, and event programs that preserve the institutional memory of UTB/TSC, UTPAB and PAUB. UTRGV University Library, Special Collections & Archives, Brownsville campus.
Reynaldo G. Garza Collection. The collection includes documents, correspondence, and committee information concerning the Select Committee on Higher Education. Issues addressed by the committee include testing of college students and necessity for comprehensive universities in South Texas (1985–1988). UTRGV University Library, Special Collections & Archives, Edinburg campus.
Remarks by Kika de la Garza on Judge Garza in his newsletter (96-703) August 2, 1979.
The couple married at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Brownsville and were married 61 years until Judge Garza's death in 2004. Mrs. Garza died in 2010. The couple raised a family of five children in Brownsville.
Mrs. Garza was a devout Catholic and parishioner of Sacred Heart and St. Mary's Catholic Churches. Among her many church and civic activities, Bertha was active in the Altar and Rosary Society, the Pan American Round Table I, the Camille Lightner Playhouse, Brownsville Art League, and the Serape Club.
Reynaldo G. Garza And Filemon B. Vega United States Courthouse in Brownsville, Texas. The federal courthouse was built in 1999 and designed by Pierce Goodwin Alexander and Linville. It serves the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Image source: Capitolshots Photography.
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All Rise
In 1961, Reynaldo G. Garza, of Brownsville, Texas, became the first Mexican American federal judge in U.S. history. A Kennedy nominee, Garza had risen from the obscurity of his humble South Texas beginnings to become a major player in Democratic politics. The careers of fellow Texans and political giants Lyndon B. Johnson and Lloyd Bentsen would become linked with his own. As an emerging power broker in the predominantly Anglo establishment, Garza personified the new elite in the Mexican American community and in the Democratic Party. Garza's long and storied tenure as a federal judge was marked by many more firsts. He became the first Mexican American chief judge of a federal district court, and, in 1979, Garza became the first Mexican American appointed to the United States Court of Appeals. President Carter invited him to become U.S. Attorney General, which would have made him the first Mexican American member of a presidential cabinet had he accepted the appointment. Louise Ann Fisch argues that Garza's long list of successes comprises a story of American achievement that had much to do with one man's ability to retain his heritage while forging ahead in an Anglo-dominated society. A product of the cross-border culture of Brownsville, where class and ethnic lines fell differently than even elsewhere along the Rio Grande, Garza integrated himself into the mainstream of American life, successfully balancing the Mexican and American parts of his dual identity. Fisch keenly analyzes the impact of ethnic identity on how he conducted his professional and personal life and looks specifically at the judicial issues he faced which confronted cultural dichotomy. Relying on interviews with Garza, his family and associates, verified through extensive archival and documentary work--including unrestricted access to the judge's papers--Fisch has written a book that is as much a careful examination of the rise of the Mexican American middle class in the twentieth century as it is a portrait of one pioneering man. Students and scholars of Mexican American culture, Borderlands studies, American politics, and judicial history will find in this biography an invaluable resource. Readers will be captivated by Fisch's probing look into the mythos that underlies tales of political power and the American Dream.
Latinos and Political System by
Excerpt from PREFACE "Americans of Hispanic descent, or Latinos, have been perceived as important participants in U.S. politics for about a quarter of a century. Since the activist period of the Chicano movement, beginning in the early 1960s, Latinos have been actively and visibly involved in the United States political system. Prior to that time, Latino politics were somewhat localized, often defensive, and not in the system's mainstream. With a few notable exceptions, particularly in New Mexico and the lower Rio Grande valley, Latinos' successes in electoral politics had been minimal. The momentum of the activist politics of the 1960s has been sustained, with more or less intensity and in varying forms, into the "decade of the Hispanics," the 1980s. Significant achievements have been attained, although Latinos are still far from being full participants in and beneficiaries of the United States political system."
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