Héctor Pérez García (January 17, 1914 – July 26, 1996) was a Mexican-American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American GI Forum (AGIF). As a result of the national prominence he earned through his work on behalf of Hispanic Americans, he was instrumental in the appointment of Vicente T. Ximenes, a Mexican American and AGIF charter member, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1966. García was named as alternate representative to the United Nations in 1967; was appointed to the US Commission on Civil Rights in 1968; was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1984; and was named to the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II in 1990. In 1998, he was posthumously given the Order of the Aztec Eagle, Mexico's highest award for foreigners, in a ceremony in Corpus Christi. Early life García was born in the city of Llera, Tamaulipas, Mexico, to José García and Faustina Pérez García, both school teachers. His family fled the violence of the Mexican Revolution in 1917, legally immigrating to Mercedes, Texas. His father's professional credentials were not recognized in this new country, so he went into the dry goods business. Both parents instilled a love and respect for education in all of their children and expected them all to become medical doctors. García and five of his siblings—José Antonio García, Clotilde Pérez García, Cuitláhuac Pérez García, Xicotencátl Pérez García, and Dalia García-Malison—did become physicians. In 1929, García joined the Citizens' Military Training Corps (CMTC), a peacetime branch of the US Army for youths. He graduated from a segregated high school in 1932. That year, he earned a commission from the CMTC with a rank equivalent to a second lieutenant in the US infantry. He began attending Edinburg Junior College, to and from which he had to hitchhike daily. His father had to cash in his life insurance policy to finance young García's education. In 1932, García entered the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a degree in zoology. He was one of the top five of his class. He went on to study at the University of Texas Medical Branch, earning his doctorate in medicine in 1940. He accomplished his residency at St. Joseph's Hospital at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1942. Army career Upon completing his internship in 1942, García