Eligio De La Garza II

A Representative from Texas; born in Mercedes, Hidalgo County, Tex., September 22, 1927; educated at Mission (Tex.) High School, Edinburgh (Tex.) Junior College, and St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Tex., LL.B., 1952; at age 17 enlisted in the United States Navy and served from 1945 to 1946; served as an officer in the United States Army, Thirty-seventh Division Artillery, 1950-1952; graduated as a second lieutenant, St. Mary’s ROTC, in 1951 and from the Artillery School, Fort Sill, Okla., in 1952; was admitted to the bar in 1952 and began practice in Mission, Tex.; member of the State house of representatives 1952-1964; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-ninth and to the fifteen succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1965-January 3, 1997); chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Ninety-seventh through One Hundred Third Congresses); was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Fifth Congress. Kika de la Garza, a Democrat who helped found the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and whose 32-year tenure in the House representing South Texas spanned the presidencies of Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton, died on Monday March 13 2017 in McAllen, Tex. He was 89. Eligio de la Garza II, who was descended from Spanish land grantees who had lived in Texas since the early 18th century, was born on Sept. 22, 1927, in Mercedes, Tex., in Hidalgo County. He was raised in nearby Mission, in the Rio Grande Valley. His father, Dario, worked for maintenance crews for the city and the federal government. His mother was the former Elisa Villarreal. He acquired the name Kika, a diminutive for Enrique, from an uncle by that name, a baseball player whom young Eligio idolized and followed everywhere. To distinguish them, the uncle became Big Kika; Eligio was nicknamed Little Kika. Mr. de la Garza dropped out of high school at 17 to join the Navy in 1945. He also served in the Army during the Korean War and was discharged as a second lieutenant. He attended Edinburg Junior College in Hidalgo County and earned a law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio in 1952. In addition to his wife, the former Lucille Alamia, he is survived by two sons, Jorge and Michael; a daughter, Angela Cisneros; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson.