PICTURED ON THE RIGHT: Pictured above, Congressman Eligio “Kika” De la Garza and Roberto Hugo Gonzalez, now publisher of Texas Border Business and Mega Doctor News. The picture was taken in 2015, outside the same building where the first photo was taken 40 years ago. The building sits across Pep Boys on South 10th Street in McAllen. Congressman De la Garza, his wife Lucille and Roberto Hugo Gonzalez planned to meet and take this photo again, four decades later. Photo by Sal Hinojosa.
By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
As originally published by Texas Border Business newsprint edition April 2017
It was sad to learn that our Beloved Congressman Eligio “Kika” De La Garza had passed away.
My relationship with Congressman De la Garza dates to 1975 when I first interviewed him. At the time, I was Spanish News Director for KQXX-FM 98.5 in McAllen, Texas, located at 608 South 10th Street.
Aside from broadcasting news, De la Garza was my first interview on radio. We talked about agriculture, a topic close to his heart. After the radio interview, we went outside the broadcasting studio and we took our picture together in late 1975.
That meeting was the first time I saw him in person, but I dealt on a weekly basis with his liaisons in Washington in charge of sending his weekly reel-to-reel audio tape report to be broadcasted. For all of you, millennials, a reel-to-reel-tape is the equivalent of a CD or now just a digital audio file. Those were different times.
It took only one meeting to know that Congressman De la Garza was a unique human being. We became friends, and later I met his wife, Lucille, whom I respect and admire.
He was our Congressman for 32 years. Since the first time I met him, he never changed. He was the same “Kika” as all friends used to call him.
I can say openly, that he was my friend as Congressman and when he was not in public office as well. I had the opportunity to cover many of the events that took place in the Valley when he was representing us in Washington.
The Editorial team of Texas Border Business and Mega Doctor News will miss our Congressman “Kika”.
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Special Report: Kika de la Garza’s Legacy Inspires, Lives On at UTRGV
Rep. Cuellar Expresses Issues Statement on Passing of Former U.S. Rep. Kika de la Garza
