Immigrant hero remembered in upcoming celebration
Slain Mexican savior Primitivo “Tivo” Garcia will be honored at a celebration later this month.
On the 50th anniversary of his murder, the Primitivo Garcia Elementary School will host a festival remembering the man. Among the evening’s festivities will be an award from the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas given to Garcia posthumously.
Garcia, a Chihuahua native, arrived in the Kansas City in the ‘60s. Between shifts working as a shipping clerk, he began taking English classes in the fall of ‘67 at Westport High school.
In a piece the Kansas City Star did on him, his teacher Margaret Kelso recalled that Garcia was an enthusiastic and polite student in spite of his lack of familiarity with schooling.
Garcia took the classes with his brother. Both were waiting for a ride on Nov. 15, 1967, when they suddenly heard Kelso’s cries: she was struggling with a group of armed robbers. Garcia and his brother ran to her and fought off the assailants, but a gunshot sent a bullet in to the 23-year-old immigrant.
Doctors at Kansas City General and St. Mary’s hospital worked for two weeks to rescue him. In that time, his story reached as far as the Missouri governor’s office, which decided to make Garcia an honorary state citizen.
During a third surgery on Nov. 28, 1967, Tivo died.
In December 1967, Time magazine called Garcia a “folkloric figure,” a “bright-eyed young idealist” comparing him to the many who came and still come to the U.S. seeking a better future in a profile. The profile lauded Garcia but upbraided Kansas City papers asserting that local publications “virtually ignored the affair.”
Garcia’s memory will be observed at the event by representatives from the mayor’s office, Latino publisher Joe Arce and Kelso herself. She is slated to give an address to attendees alongside her adult daughter Marlo Kinderman. Kelso was five months pregnant with her daughter when Garcia sacrificed his life to save both of theirs.
