Two Mexican-Americans who have dedicated their lives to fighting for equality and the civil rights of Latinos were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at the White House on Thursday (7).

Raúl Yzaguirre is the founder and former leader of the National Council of La Raza, considered the largest Hispanic defense and civil rights group, now known as UnidosUS, and Julieta García is a former president of the University of Texas at Brownsville – the first Latina to occupy this position.

Born a decade apart in the Rio Grande Valley, the two learned life lessons while growing up in South Texas to rise to prominent leadership positions in the pursuit of ending ethnic discrimination and advancing the civil rights of Latinos and people of African descent.

According to the NBC News, “Yzaguirre and García are among 17 people to be awarded the medal Thursday by President Joe Biden. Other honorees are former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz.; Olympic gymnast Simone Biles; U.S. soccer player Megan Rapinoe; the actor Denzel Washington; and posthumously, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple”.

“Yzaguirre, 82, born in San Juan, Texas, took a small organization with about $500,000 and 23 affiliates and grew it into a formidable one with a $40 million budget and 250 members. The group, renamed UnidosUS, has helped shape policy on immigration, education, voting rights and more. Yzaguirre stepped down in 2004, after 30 years of work. He also served as the ambassador to the Dominican Republic under President Barack Obama”.

“García, 73, born in Brownsville, Texas, was president of UT-Brownsville and helped oversee its merger with University of Texas Pan American to become UT-Rio Grande Valley, which serves mostly Latinos. She fought for money from the state's Permanent University Fund, which holds 2.1 million acres and revenue from oil and gas leases on the land, to create the university. UT-Rio Grande Valley is ranked in the top three schools awarding bachelor's degrees to Latinos”, according to NBC.

Yzaguirre's work with UnidosUS relied heavily on bringing together the country's increasingly diverse Latino population to forge a stronger political force that could capture the attention of Washington's power brokers.

He was raised by his grandparents and was heavily influenced by his grandfather's own story of nearly being lynched by Texas Rangers when he was out past a curfew imposed by the state on Mexican Americans and Mexicans at the time, according to a 2016 biography, "Raul H. Yzaguirre: Seated at the Table of Power," by Stella Pope Duarte.

“Yzaguirre's work in Washington still impacts. Charles Kamasaki, a senior adviser at UnidosUS, recalled Yzaguirre deciding to agree to compromise on what became the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. He didn't like the enforcement levels in the bill and had worked to improve it until finally agreeing to a compromise in 1986, giving about 3 million immigrants without legal status in the U.S. a chance to become lawful permanent residents”.