Santiago Hernandez Papers

Santiago Hernandez was a resident of Corpus Christi that worked for the Federal Correctional Institution in Three Rivers, Texas for over a decade. His uncle, Guillermo Luna, was the National Director of Hispanic Veterans Military History for the American GI Forum and pointed out that Hernandez worked in the town where the Longoria Affair occurred. Galvanized with this newfound information, Hernandez seized the moment to try and have the Three Rivers Post Office renamed after Longoria. Pvt. Felix Z. Longoria Jr was killed in action in the Pacific theater of World War II in 1945, however his body was not recovered until 1949. When his body was returned to Three Rivers, a racial dispute with the local funeral parlor owner Tom Kennedy and Longoria’s surviving family ensued. Tom repeated to both Hector P. Garcia and Corpus Christi Caller reporter George Groh that “the whites would not like it” if Hispanic Longoria was permitted a wake at the parlor. The small local dispute soon escalated to international news. Texan political start-up Lyndon B. Johnson intervened and was able to get Longoria a full military burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Ultimately, a vocal group of local Three River residents were able to squash the post office renaming measure after disputing the series of events. A Texas Historical Marker was placed at the funeral parlor in 2010, and damaged in 2014 when the structure was demolished to make way for a parking lot. The marker was subsequently relocated to the town square near city hall after being repaired.