Medal of Freedom recipient to UTA: ‘Make a difference for the next generation’
Medal of Freedom recipient Juliet V. Garcia reminded a University of Texas at Arlington audience to keep the next generation in mind at the annual Center for Mexican American Studies Distinguished Lecture.
“You have to believe that what you are doing here at UT Arlington will make a difference for the next generation,” Garcia said. “You have been entrusted with the care of those people, and it should be a privilege.”
Garcia is no stranger to making a difference; her mission has been to transform and expand higher education in the Rio Grande Valley. During her time at UT Brownsville, she played a critical part in uniting it and UT Pan American to establish UT Rio Grande Valley in 2013.
In 1986, Garcia became the first Latina to serve as president of a college or university in the United States. In 2009, Time magazine named her one of the Top 10 College Presidents in the U.S., and in 2014, she was recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. President Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022 for “transforming her hometown University of Texas Brownsville into a center of excellence for countless students who were inspired by her example.”
“We will all remember the day when an icon of excellence in education and a fighter for Hispanic students graced us with her visit and presentation on the significance of Hispanic and Latino representation in American society, politics and higher education,” said Minerva Cordero, interim vice provost for faculty affairs at UTA.
Garcia recounted how it took 10 years of persistence before she was selected as president of Texas Southmost College in 1986. She credited the help of the two women on the board who encouraged her to reapply for the presidency.
“Sometimes it takes someone to help you raise your hand,” Garcia said. “Sometimes it takes 10 years to learn the job, but you have to remember to signal to people that you want to do more and that you want to fix and improve things as they come.”
During her time as president at UT Brownsville, she was faced with a lawsuit from the federal government for refusing to sign over university land to the Department of Homeland Security to build an 18-foot border wall. She says it went against the mission of the bilingual and bicultural university to build walls between nations.
Garcia rallied the support of the UT System Chancellor and the Board of Regents. She described that moment in her career as a golpe (a “hit,” in English) and said, “Sometime those golpes come and make you stronger. You survive it and it makes you stronger.”
Garcia said the most important lesson she learned in her career was taught by a mother of two young children who walked to UT Brownsville’s campus one summer to donate money to a university fundraiser. When Garcia asked the mother why she wanted to donate, the woman said it was because it was the only hope she had for her children.
“This is why we do this work, not because you are the only women or because the money is great,” Garcia said. “It’s because you believe that your work is going to make a difference in someone’s life. Nothing else explains it.”