BEXAR COUNTY, Texas -- Local Texas Legislative Medal of Honor recipients will have memories of their service set in stone at the Bexar County Courthouse.
It was back in 2015 when Bexar County removed all Confederate monuments and markings from county property.
It was around the same time that Jim Cisneros set out to honor his brother. Roy Cisneros was just 19-years-old when he died in Vietnam. It's taken a while, but his brother Jim Cisneros is excited to finally see his brother’s service and sacrifice remembered. In addition to his many federal honors, Roy is a recipient of the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor, the highest honor the state awards to a member of the armed forces.
Only 12 Texans have ever received the award, half have ties to Bexar County and South Texas. Now, the county plans to put their names and years of service on the existing sandstone monument of outside of the courthouse. That monument once held confederate symbols, and honored the soldiers of the Confederacy. Cisneros believes the change not only sends a more positive message but is also a way to honor the sacrifice of Texas veterans.
"We have businesses, we have jobs, all this because these men put their lives on the line overseas every day. It's the men and women who put on the uniform that make this nation great," Cisneros said.
During the same time in 2015 when commissioners removed the symbols, they also removed ones at the former Federal Reserve Building since it is another piece of county property. For at least two years activists have been asking San Antonio officials to remove a statue of Confederate soldier and monument at city owned Travis Park downtown.
People protested the statue's presence in the park last week on the Fourth of July. The county is expected to host an official ceremony and plaque installation within the next several weeks.
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