González, Mike V. 1928-

Attorney Mike V. González was born in Uvalde, Texas in 1928. He excelled in athletics and was the first Mexican American to achieve the Iron Man title in the South Texas Iron Man competition. In 1946, he graduated high school and signed with the Boston Red Sox baseball team, but was soon drafted into the United States Army where he served in the Counter Intelligence Corps tracking German Nazi war criminals. While in the service, he married a German national but they divorced after he returned to the United States. He attended Howard Payne University in San Angelo, Texas and obtained his law degree from St. Mary's University in San Antonio. He and his second wife, Delia Flores Gonález, whom he divorced in 1980, ran a law practice in Del Rio, Texas. He pursued numerous civil rights cases across Texas, particularly over school segregation and the school reorganization plan he created for the San Felipe Independent School District was adopted by other Texas school districts undergoing court-ordered desegregation/integration. He was on the board of the Mexican American Democrats of Texas (MAD) and served as executive vice president of American G.I. Forum. He was elected to the Del Rio city council in 1970 and also served as police commissioner. He ran on the Democratic Party ticket for the Texas House of Representatives in 1980, but lost that election.

From the description of Oral history interview with Mike V. Gonzalez, 1998 [videorecording]. (University of Texas at Arlington). WorldCat record id: 457193692