OBITUARY
GEORGE CISNEROS
Ret. Col. George Cisneros leaves a legacy of spirit, generosity and humor.
PODER Magazine
September 2006
By Analisa Nazareno, San Antonio
During his lifetime, retired Army Col. J. George Cisneros saw his parents lose their Spanish land grant during the Great Depression, served World War II combat for three years in a row, witnessed his son Henry become the first Mexican-American mayor of a major U.S. city, suffered a paralyzing stroke and started life anew.
The father of former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros died July 28, at the age of 89 after what friends and family say was a heroic 30-year battle with a debilitating
stroke.
Cisneros's five children-a corporate executive, a biologist, an artist, an architect and an educator-remembered as someone who survived adversity and advanced in life through an unfailing belief in hard work, education and merit.
"My dad was part of that greatest generation that's been written about," said his eldest child, Henry Cisneros, now chairman of CityView, a San Antonio-based housing corporation.
"He lived through the Depression, fought in World War II. And he and others built America as we know it. For all his accomplishments, some of his greatest accomplishments came after he suffered his stroke."
Born Feb. 13, 1917 and named Joseph George Sisneros, Cisneros changed the spelling of his last name when he researched his family background and realized the original family name had been altered to make it easier for Anglos to pronounce.
Known by everyone as George Cisneros, he raised his children to be prepared for a new American society that was more inclusive, with Hispanics playing an integral role in influence and leadership.
"It was beyond his imagination that he should stand in the back of the line just because of his Mexican heritage," Henry Cisneros told the hundreds of people who packed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower in San Antonio.
George Cisneros was the 11th of 12 children, the descendent of early Spanish settlers in New Mexico. After his family lost their homestead during the Depression, they moved north and worked as migrants on farms before settling in Brighton, Colorado.
"From the time I was 9 years old, I worked in the fields with my dad," George Cisneros told researchers for the 1985 book, Cisneros: Portrait of a New American, published by the Corona Publishing Company.
"In the spring, we had to drop out of school nearly a month early to trim beets," he said. "It was stoop labor all day. In the fall we were a month late getting back to school because that is when you top the beets. I was always trying to catch up and sometimes it was Christmas before I did."
Cisneros became the first in his family and the only one of his siblings to graduate from high school. He later obtained a scholarship to attend a Denver business school. After finishing, he worked for the Indian Service
in Albuquerque and Salt Lake City before he was drafted into the Army.
Cisneros arrived in San Antonio in 1944 after serving three consecutive years in World War II combat, to be treated for malaria. He settled in the city after being discharged in 1945, and later that year married Elvira Munguia, whose parents were prominent political refugees of the Porfirio Diaz regime during the Mexican Revolution.
George and Elvira Cisneros raised five children: Henry Cisneros, who continues to live in San Antonio; Dr. Pauline Cisneros Polette, a biologist in Houston; George Jr., an artist in San Antonio; Romulo Tim Cisneros, an architect in Houston; and Tina Corser, an educator in Clinton, New Jersey.
Cisneros stressed the importance of education to his children, each of whom attended private Catholic schools and
graduated from college. And he encouraged his children to enthusiastically argue their perspectives as they debated at the dinner table.
His son Henry said friends marveled at his broad interests and his ability to read multiple books at once. His children were also deeply impressed that their father joined a local Toastmasters club and practiced speeches in the family's living room.
George Cisneros continued his formal education while working in civil service posts and as he climbed the ranks as a
trainer for the U.S. Army Reserve.
He attended night classes at San Antonio College. After suffering a stroke that paralyzed his left arm and leg in 1976 and retiring from the Army Reserve, he took classes at Our Lady of the Lake University, with the hope of obtaining a bachelor's degree in history.
Friends and family looked back on the stroke as a pivotal event that changed his approach toward life.
"After his stroke, he just shed all pretensions and the mask that he sort of hid behind, especially in the military," says his fourth child, Tim Cisneros. "So all of a sudden his humor and all his practical jokes came out, especially with the grandkids. He was no longer about the protocols and the niceties and not being able to say what he thought.
"And it was enjoyable watching him living life the way that he wanted to live. It took a near-death experience for him to do that, but it was exciting."
As a stroke survivor, he helped found the Alamo Area Stroke Club, at the urging of a nun he met while doing physical therapy at the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center.
As part of his physical therapy, he learned to play golf and competed annually in the San Antonio one-armed golf tournament, winning first place three years in a row.
Cisneros volunteered as an assistant reading teacher at Crockett Elementary School for nearly 20 years. Hundreds of friends, family members, doctors, nurses, nuns and priests joined the family for his rosary and funeral services, as
Cisneros's body lay waiting burial in his blue officer's uniform. Mourners said they were touched by his strength of spirit, sense of humor, love of life and generosity.
"He was a really tough man," said stroke survivor, Santiago "Gene" Casanova, who met Cisneros nine years ago through the Stroke Club. "He was outspoken about the stroke. He wouldn't hold things back. He showed us that you can't feel sorry for yourself. You have to keep going. You have to keep living. You have to keep doing therapy.
You just can't let this bring you down."
To the very end, his eldest son said, his father sought therapy and fought to live. "I never heard him say it was not fair that he suffered a stroke," Henry Cisneros says. "I know it must have been a disappointment inside. It certainly hurt those of us who loved him to see the unfairness of it.
"When I think about it, perhaps it was God's plan that his sacrifice would show the rest of us how to live with adversity. It seems an unfair burden for one man to carry. But it was a powerful set of lessons that only a courageous person, only someone strong enough to survive could teach." +
I I 75 I SEPTEMBER 2006
GEORGE CISNEROS
Ret. Col. George Cisneros leaves a legacy of spirit, generosity and humor.
PODER Magazine
September 2006
By Analisa Nazareno, San Antonio
During his lifetime, retired Army Col. J. George Cisneros saw his parents lose their Spanish land grant during the Great Depression, served World War II combat for three years in a row, witnessed his son Henry become the first Mexican-American mayor of a major U.S. city, suffered a paralyzing stroke and started life anew.
The father of former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros died July 28, at the age of 89 after what friends and family say was a heroic 30-year battle with a debilitating
stroke.
Cisneros's five children-a corporate executive, a biologist, an artist, an architect and an educator-remembered as someone who survived adversity and advanced in life through an unfailing belief in hard work, education and merit.
"My dad was part of that greatest generation that's been written about," said his eldest child, Henry Cisneros, now chairman of CityView, a San Antonio-based housing corporation.
"He lived through the Depression, fought in World War II. And he and others built America as we know it. For all his accomplishments, some of his greatest accomplishments came after he suffered his stroke."
Born Feb. 13, 1917 and named Joseph George Sisneros, Cisneros changed the spelling of his last name when he researched his family background and realized the original family name had been altered to make it easier for Anglos to pronounce.
Known by everyone as George Cisneros, he raised his children to be prepared for a new American society that was more inclusive, with Hispanics playing an integral role in influence and leadership.
"It was beyond his imagination that he should stand in the back of the line just because of his Mexican heritage," Henry Cisneros told the hundreds of people who packed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower in San Antonio.
George Cisneros was the 11th of 12 children, the descendent of early Spanish settlers in New Mexico. After his family lost their homestead during the Depression, they moved north and worked as migrants on farms before settling in Brighton, Colorado.
"From the time I was 9 years old, I worked in the fields with my dad," George Cisneros told researchers for the 1985 book, Cisneros: Portrait of a New American, published by the Corona Publishing Company.
"In the spring, we had to drop out of school nearly a month early to trim beets," he said. "It was stoop labor all day. In the fall we were a month late getting back to school because that is when you top the beets. I was always trying to catch up and sometimes it was Christmas before I did."
Cisneros became the first in his family and the only one of his siblings to graduate from high school. He later obtained a scholarship to attend a Denver business school. After finishing, he worked for the Indian Service
in Albuquerque and Salt Lake City before he was drafted into the Army.
Cisneros arrived in San Antonio in 1944 after serving three consecutive years in World War II combat, to be treated for malaria. He settled in the city after being discharged in 1945, and later that year married Elvira Munguia, whose parents were prominent political refugees of the Porfirio Diaz regime during the Mexican Revolution.
George and Elvira Cisneros raised five children: Henry Cisneros, who continues to live in San Antonio; Dr. Pauline Cisneros Polette, a biologist in Houston; George Jr., an artist in San Antonio; Romulo Tim Cisneros, an architect in Houston; and Tina Corser, an educator in Clinton, New Jersey.
Cisneros stressed the importance of education to his children, each of whom attended private Catholic schools and
graduated from college. And he encouraged his children to enthusiastically argue their perspectives as they debated at the dinner table.
His son Henry said friends marveled at his broad interests and his ability to read multiple books at once. His children were also deeply impressed that their father joined a local Toastmasters club and practiced speeches in the family's living room.
George Cisneros continued his formal education while working in civil service posts and as he climbed the ranks as a
trainer for the U.S. Army Reserve.
He attended night classes at San Antonio College. After suffering a stroke that paralyzed his left arm and leg in 1976 and retiring from the Army Reserve, he took classes at Our Lady of the Lake University, with the hope of obtaining a bachelor's degree in history.
Friends and family looked back on the stroke as a pivotal event that changed his approach toward life.
"After his stroke, he just shed all pretensions and the mask that he sort of hid behind, especially in the military," says his fourth child, Tim Cisneros. "So all of a sudden his humor and all his practical jokes came out, especially with the grandkids. He was no longer about the protocols and the niceties and not being able to say what he thought.
"And it was enjoyable watching him living life the way that he wanted to live. It took a near-death experience for him to do that, but it was exciting."
As a stroke survivor, he helped found the Alamo Area Stroke Club, at the urging of a nun he met while doing physical therapy at the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center.
As part of his physical therapy, he learned to play golf and competed annually in the San Antonio one-armed golf tournament, winning first place three years in a row.
Cisneros volunteered as an assistant reading teacher at Crockett Elementary School for nearly 20 years. Hundreds of friends, family members, doctors, nurses, nuns and priests joined the family for his rosary and funeral services, as
Cisneros's body lay waiting burial in his blue officer's uniform. Mourners said they were touched by his strength of spirit, sense of humor, love of life and generosity.
"He was a really tough man," said stroke survivor, Santiago "Gene" Casanova, who met Cisneros nine years ago through the Stroke Club. "He was outspoken about the stroke. He wouldn't hold things back. He showed us that you can't feel sorry for yourself. You have to keep going. You have to keep living. You have to keep doing therapy.
You just can't let this bring you down."
To the very end, his eldest son said, his father sought therapy and fought to live. "I never heard him say it was not fair that he suffered a stroke," Henry Cisneros says. "I know it must have been a disappointment inside. It certainly hurt those of us who loved him to see the unfairness of it.
"When I think about it, perhaps it was God's plan that his sacrifice would show the rest of us how to live with adversity. It seems an unfair burden for one man to carry. But it was a powerful set of lessons that only a courageous person, only someone strong enough to survive could teach." +
I I 75 I SEPTEMBER 2006
