FORGOTTEN HEROS!

Marion Fuget (Left) and George Small are seen in this 1963 photo surrounded by curious (and some bored) children at Jalisco's state-run orphanage, Hospicio Cabanas, then located on the outskirts of Quadalajara. Small, acknowledged to be one of Quadalajara's earliest Gringo settlers, was chairman of the Alliance for Compassion --- the forerunner of what would eventually evolve to be the Mexico Chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America. Other Explorers and Pioneers, including Fuget, Ernie Chavez, Bill Bailey, Larry Kegan, Bill Coe and Joe Miller --- to name a few --- banded together in charitable endeavors to aid some of Quadalajara's most needy. For many, the days of Tequila, Senoritas y Mariachis, had grown old. It was time to give back to the community that had --- with a few notable exceptions --- welcomed their differently abled neighbors from the North with brazos abiertos. I could write a book --- and I kinda/sorta remember doing that --- about just some of what these "old-timers" overcame and accomplished. The Alliance for Compassion, as noted in a 1964 article in the Paraplegia News, comprised of folks who shyed away from the limelight. "What baffles everyone in the big American colony here is that nobody seems to want any credit, nobody wants his name in the local papers, nobody even wants to admit he was part of it." "Wheelers throw king-size party for orphans." (QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was, page 150.) Both Small and Fuget passed away in their adopted hometown South-of-the-Border. George Small, upon his death, left money specifically for Mexico's poorest children. http://www.quadmexico.com/