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Man's flags have neighbors upset

07:46 PM CST on Thursday, February 2, 2006
By ALLEN HOUSTON / The Dallas Morning News

The U.S. and Mexican flags dancing with the wind in Louis Garza's front yard have brewed up bitter resentment in this East Dallas neighborhood. Perched atop a 20-foot plus pole and seen from blocks away, the green, white and red Mexican flag snaps in the brisk January breeze. Beneath it flies the red, white and blue American flag - and there lies the problem.

SMILEY N. POOL / DMN
Louis Garza has sandwiched an American flag between two Mexican flags at his home. Sitting on a barstool surrounded by a few veterans at White Rock VFW Post 6796, Cecil Caddel, a Korean War Vet and Mr. Garza's neighbor, spoke about the U.S. flag being flown below another flag.

"It irritates the hell out of me," Mr. Caddel said. "We didn't go to war to fly a Mexican flag over our flag."

The flag clash has tapped into deep-rooted passions about America's beloved symbol and Mr. Garza's right as a U.S. citizen to use the Stars and Stripes to protest the war in Iraq and support his Mexican heritage.

Mr. Garza, a Brownsville native, recently answered the door to his eclectic home wearing an Alan Jackson T-shirt, mirrored sunglasses and a black cowboy hat.

Two pianos and more than a dozen guitars fill the small house he has lived in for 40 years. A bust of Abraham Lincoln sits prominently on a bookcase.

His parents came from Jimenez, Mexico, across the border from Brownsville. Mr. Garza said his mother swam the river at Matamoras so she could give birth to him on American soil.

"She wanted the best for me and all this country had to offer," said the 71-year-old.

In his Dallas home, Mr. Garza, who has been married twice, has raised two families and settled down deep roots. He built the flagpole tall enough so passerby could see it and his devotion to America.

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But anger made him stand up to something he holds dear.

Mr. Garza first switched the flags placing the Mexican flag on top after the start of the Iraq War.

"I was upset at the lies," he said. "We've got all these young kids over there dying and for what … nothing."

Supporters of the war, however, say U.S. forces are ensuring the region's security and are establishing a viable democracy in Iraq.

Mr. Garza initially flew a much larger Mexican flag at the top of his flagpole but a friend begged him to take it down because he thought it was too "confrontational."

Instead, he replaced it with a smaller Mexican flag.

"What can I say? I'm cantankerous," the retired welder laughed.

"Texas belonged to the Mexicans first," he added. "And last time I looked it was my freedom of expression to fly the flag anyway I want."

Francis "Shorty" Galloway, 87, who served in the 102 Infantry Division during World War II, and other Post 6796 members see the matter differently.

"He's violating the flag code," Mr. Galloway said. "Nothing is supposed to fly above the American flag. If he's going to live in our country he needs to abide by our rules."

Technically, Mr. Garza is violating the flag code passed by Congress in 1942, which in part says no person shall display "any other national or international flag equal, above, or in a position of superior prominence" to the U.S. flag.

The rules are only guidelines though and aren't enforceable. Everything from flag paper plates to Britney Spears wearing a flag bikini also violates the code.

Marc Leepson, author of Flag: An American Biography, said until the start of the Civil War citizens didn't actually fly the flag. That changed with the start of the war where in the North, the Stars and Stripes waved from almost every business and home.

Old Glory has seeped into many facets of American life from children saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the Star Spangled Banner.

"The most reproduced photo of the 20th century is the Marines planting the flag on Iowa Jima," Mr. Leepson said. "The story of Betsy Ross is one every school child knows. It's something that permeates deeply into who we are as a people."

Post 6796, located within throwing distance of White Rock Lake, is the second largest VFW Hall in Texas with more than 1,300 members who come together to swap stories, volunteer and dance and play bingo.

Post Commander John Brandman, a Vietnam War veteran, says flying the Mexican flag above its U.S. counterpart dishonors America's armed forces.

"I find it kind of disgusting as a veteran and an American citizen," Mr. Brandman said. "He's showing a lot of disrespect to the people who fought and died in defending this country."

Not all veterans in Mr. Garza's neighborhood are as upset as Post 6796 members.

Retired Lt. Col. Edwin Lewis, who was shot down during a raid over France during World War II, has lived down the street from Mr. Garza for decades.

The former bombardier navigator shuffles down the sidewalk to Mr. Garza's during his nightly walk, pushing a walker with a sign, reading "Ed's Cadillac." The two usually sit on Mr. Garza's porch and have a beer.

"He's a neighborhood character," Mr. Lewis said, saying he had never paid attention to the flags flying in front of the house. "Everybody knows Louie'd give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it."Though Mr. Garza has had neighborhood residents tell him that the veterans were unhappy, none of them have asked him to switch flags.

"If they don't like it, guess what, I'm an American citizen, too," he said. "I'm proud of this country but I'm also proud of my heritage."

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