Lucio, Augustin

Augustin Lucio

Biography

Augustin Lucio Jr. (1922–2014) grew up in a farming community outside San Marcos, Texas. Lucio dropped out of school in the tenth grade and joined the U.S. Army eleven months before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He was sent to Northern Ireland in October 1943 but didn't see combat until he stormed the beach at Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944). Lucio, who also fought in the Battle of the Bulge, became the most decorated veteran from Hays County. 

Lucio returned to San Marcos in 1945. He worked at Austin's Bergstrom Air Force Base for thirty-five years before retiring as chief of quality control. He also studied business administration at Southwest Texas State University.

Lucio, an active member of the local community, was elected to the San Marcos School Board in 1964 for one term. He also served one year on the board in 1969, and then was again elected as a member in 1976. Lucio was then re-elected for five three-year terms and served as president, vice-president, and secretary, totaling nineteen years. Lucio also founded the San Marcos chapter of the American GI Forum.

In 1972, Lucio led a boycott of all San Marcos public schools in protest of unfair treatment of the local Latino community, citing the lack of Hispanic teachers. San Marcos School District later named the high school library in his honor.

Lucio was interviewed as part of a project designed to connect high school students with long-time San Marcos residents.  The interview appears in The Ties That Bind, a book edited Oren Renick, Randall Osborne, and Megan Hamid. 

Texas 150 Oral History

Lucio discusses what life in San Marcos was like growing up as a Mexican migrant worker in the 1930s. He goes on to talk about his experiences in the military in World War II and the 1940s and how that inspired him to pursue an education. Lucio describes what San Marcos was like in the past, touching on aspects of the city's local politics and education system, especially in relation to the Latino community.

LBJ100 Oral History Project

Mr. Lucio talks about what it was like growing up in San Marcos's Hispanic community in the 1930s-1940s.  He talks extensively about education -- his family's history with education, how public schools were segregated into Anglo schools and Mexican schools, his experience attending the Campus Elementary, his struggle with trying to balance working on the family farm with the need to study and do homework, and how military service opened up new opportunities - especially for Hispanics.  Lucio also talks about discrimination and how he wanted his children to have equal opportunities for education, sparking his activism.