HARKER HEIGHTS — Elena Garcia, 84, earned the title of matriarch not because of her age, but because of respect from the Hispanic community.
“If they say that, I feel very honored,” Garcia said humbly. “I know I worked hard. I know I did my best to bring everyone together.”
For Albert P. Gonzales, Garcia has been a pillar of the Hispanic community and deserves honor.
“It doesn’t mean that her involvement in the community is only for the sake of Hispanics,” said Gonzales, founder of Killeen’s League of United Latin American Citizens Council 4535 and who, himself, has been prominent in the Hispanic community. .
“On the contrary, its involvement has included all segments of society,” said Gonzales. “Mrs. Garcia’s concern for her compatriots and other newcomers to Killeen led her in September 1975 to organize the Sociedad Cultural Hispanoamericana or Hispanicamerican Cultural Society with the purpose and goals of demonstrating various aspects of Hispanic culture in the local area and to made newcomers feel welcome in Killeen.”
Some scholarships, Gonzales said, are given by the society. During Christmas and Thanksgiving, the society donates food baskets to families in need.
All those who live in the Killeen, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove and Fort Hood areas who know Ms. Garcia agree that she is a very caring and well-spoken person, Gonzales said.
“She is consistent in these efforts and one of these efforts led her to form a committee to visit and minister to the male and female inmates incarcerated at the Gatesville jail,” Gonzales said. “It is admirable that she finds time to help others.”
Through her real estate office, she was able to help many soldiers who for one reason or another were unable to provide housing for their families within the Killeen area, Gonzales said.
Garcia, a native of Puerto Rico, graduated in 1951 from Santa Maria Catholic University in Ponce, Puerto Rico, with a bachelor of science degree in education. For five years, she taught first and second graders in Ponce.
After graduation, she married Florencio “Guz” Garcia, who was drafted into the US Army.
While her husband was serving in the Korean War, Garcia and her children stayed in Ponce. After the war in 1955, the Garcias moved from Puerto Rico to Honolulu, Hawaii.
While in Hawaii, Garcia said she could only get work as a substitute teacher. But she wanted more.
“I didn’t like that,” Garcia said. “I wanted a steady job.”
Garcia said she always wanted to be a hairdresser, so she went to cosmetology school in Hawaii and got a job at the beauty salon at the military base at Schofield Barracks.
In 1959, the Garcias arrived in Killeen.
“I looked around and they only had one beauty salon in the whole city,” said Garcia, who opened Killeen’s first Hispanic beauty salon in 1960 at Avenue D and Eighth Street.
After a few years, Garcia said he owned three beauty salons in Killeen — another on Eighth Street and the third in the Midtown Mall off Business Highway 190.
During the ’60s and ’70s, Garcia said she attended meetings at Temple with other hairdressers and they, in turn, formed a cosmetology association.
“I helped organize one in Killeen, called Killeen Cosmetology Branch Number 59. And I was its first president,” Garcia said.
Garcia said her husband opened a cafe at what was then West Business Highway 190. It was the first Latin cafe in Killeen, called The Garcia Latin Cafe.
In the same place, her husband opened a produce market called Puerto Rico Imports. Also in the same place, he opened a pawn shop.
After a few years, Garcia said her husband started to get sick and she couldn’t manage all these businesses. So, she sold them and went into real estate.
In 1978, after she and her husband received their broker’s licenses, they opened a real estate office on Fort Hood Road.
When she organized the Sociedad Cultural Hispanoamericana, Garcia said she and the people in the organization worked hard to unite all Hispanics in and around the Fort Hood area. She said they held many activities to show the different cultures and nationalities of the Hispanics living in and around the city of Killeen.
“When I had the beauty shops, I saw then the need for people to know who Hispanics are and where we come from,” Garcia said, noting that Hispanics are people from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Peru and Spain.
To showcase these different cultures, Garcia said that one night the residents of each of these countries would showcase their local foods. The next night, it could be a dance culture.
“They would perform dances from their country with their clothes, costumes and everything. It was beautiful and we had lots and lots of activities like that,” said the 84-year-old matriarch.
At the same time, Garcia said they helped people in need of money, help, food or medicine. “We were doing both at the same time,” she said.
“I saw the need for all of this in 1960 when we started our first beauty salon, because people didn’t know who we were,” Garcia said. “They were coming up to me and asking, ‘how did you get here? Do you need a passport to go to the United States from Puerto Rico? And I would say, ‘no we don’t need a passport because we are citizens by birth. We belong to the United States.”
Garcia said she had a friend from Puerto Rico who was blonde with blue eyes. “They would come up to me and say, ‘she’s blonde and blue-eyed. I thought there were only black people in Puerto Rico,'” said Garcia, one of LULAC’s first members. “I would tell them that we are a mixed culture and that we have all kinds of races in Puerto Rico — black, brown and white.”
Garcia said she is also proud of the Sociedad Cultural Hispanoamericana because it was not only able to bring together the different aspects of Hispanic society, but also to include some Americans.
The first treasurer of the organization was Dr. Daniel Kott, who did not speak Spanish. “Now, he’s involved in theater with ethnic groups teaching dance, music and acting,” Garcia said, noting that Kott’s wife, also an American, is involved in the group.
“So I feel honored that I was able to bring other non-Hispanic people into the Hispanic culture,” Garcia said.
In 1994, Garcia retired to help her seriously ill husband, who died in 1998.
She continues her work at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, where she has served as lector, Eucharistic Minister, member of the Killeen Ultreya movement of St. Joseph Cursillo and historical reporter.
In 1997, she wrote a cookbook to help a sick friend who needed money.
“I put it together with my recipes and my family’s recipes,” Garcia said. “The main reason I did this was to help a person who needed money for surgery. With the profits, I helped pay her hospital bills.”
Even at age 84, Garcia continues her tradition of preparing a hearty meal every Wednesday for her family of four children, 10 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
