Garcia Rivera made history when in 1937 he became the first Puerto Rican to be elected to public office in the continental United States.

Garcia Rivera was born in the city of Mayagüez, located in the western region of Puerto Rico, to a prosperous family who owned a coffee plantation.

Puerto Ricans became eligible for the military draft, plus they were now permitted to hold public office in the mainland United States, however Puerto Ricans in the island were not allowed to vote for the president nor were they allowed to have representatives in the US legislature, other than the Resident Commissioner, who did not have the right to vote in any of the measures presented before Congress.

Garcia Rivera visited New York City as soon as he finished high school and returned home.

In 1926, he moved to Manhattan and rented an apartment on West 110th Street in a barrio made up mostly of Puerto Ricans known as Spanish Harlem.

As the economic situation in the United States worsened in a prelude to the Great Depression, many Puerto Ricans in the mainland found themselves competing with other groups for the positions of unskilled labor such as dishwashers, maintenance and laundry workers.

[4] With a score of 98.4% on his Postal Clerk examinations, Garcia Rivera was appointed to the City Hall Post Office.

He encouraged other Puerto Rican and Hispanic employees to participate in the union and to seek higher wages and better working conditions.

Adding to the misery was the fact that schools were overcrowded and housing was severely limited, plus discrimination by neighbors, government officials and police brutality was rampant.

candidate Thomas E. Dewey, and Union leaders like Michael J. Quill, TWU, George Meany, AFL/CIO, Alex Rose and Benjamin MacLauren.

Garcia Rivera also proposed labor related bills which provided for: In 1940, he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.