Santos S. Garza

Garza's district was born in the same year as the League of United Latin American Citizens, founded on February 17, 1929, at Salon Obreros y Obreras in Corpus Christi. It merged four groups, councils of the Sons of America in Corpus Christi and Alice, the Knights of America and the Latin American Citizens League, and chose the motto All for one and one for all. Ben Garza was its first president. LULAC grew out of a rising Texas-Mexican middle class and fought disfranchisement, jury exclusion and the segregation of schools, housing and public places.

What the plaque says

SANTOS S. GARZA, ALSO KNOWN AS "DON SANTOS" OR "FATHER OF SAN FELIPE SCHOOLS," WAS BORN NOV. 2, 1881 IN EITHER PIEDRAS NEGRAS OR EAGLE PASS. HE CAME TO DEL RIO IN 1898 WHERE HE OWNED NUMEROUS BUSINESSES INCLUDING A THEATER, GENERAL STORE, DAIRY, PHARMACY, RANCH AND BAR. HE MARRIED JESUSITA MENCHACA GALINDO ON JAN. 3, 1901, AND THEY HAD FIVE CHILDREN AND ADOPTED A SIXTH. GARZA WAS A CIVIC LEADER WHO IS BEST REMEMBERED FOR PREVENTING THE ANNEXATION OF THE SAN FELIPE AREA BY DEL RIO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT IN 1928, ALLOWING HIS COMMUNITY GREATER CONTROL OF ITS SCHOOLS, AND FOR HIS LEADERSHIP IN THE MOVEMENT TOWARDS CREATING THE SAN FELIPE I.S.D. ON AUG. 21, 1929. GARZA DIED JUL. 25, 1936. (2011)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 0.5 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• San Felipe Creek — 0.6 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Val Verde Winery — 0.7 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 9.7 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• Brown Plaza — steps away
• John Taini — 0.5 mi
• Taylor-Rivers House — 0.5 mi
• Seminole-Negro Scouts — 0.5 mi