Cantú, Mario

Mario Cantú was a well-known restaurant owner and civil rights activist in San Antonio, Texas. He was born Mauro Casiano Cantú, Jr. on April 2, 1937 in the San Antonio apartment of his parents, Mauro Cantú and Lucrecia Casiano. Cantú, the oldest of four children, was first called “Mario” by his schoolteachers. As a child, he helped out at the family business, a small 24-hour grocery store on the West Side called the M. Cantu Super Mercado. After graduating from Tech High School, Cantú married his first wife at age 19 and worked at the family grocery full time. Several years later he convinced his father to turn the store into a restaurant. Mario’s Restaurant became one of San Antonio’s most popular Mexican-food establishments.

In the early years of the restaurant business Cantú became involved in selling drugs, an action he later attributed to family difficulties. After a 1963 heroin run to Monterrey, Mexico, he was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison at Terra Haute, Indiana. While in prison, Cantú met several Puerto Rican nationalist political prisoners, and it was their influence and spirit that first made him interested in becoming a Chicano activist. In 1969 he returned to San Antonio and began organizing “Semana de la Raza” activities surrounding the Diez y Seis de Septiembre Mexican Independence Day. He also formed a committee to examine police brutality against Chicanos and founded Tu-Casa, an organization that helped undocumented migrant workers from Mexico to gain legal status in the U.S. He got involved in La Raza Unida Party and also worked to inform Americans about torture and injustice toward Mexican political prisoners.

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