The Railroad Sacrifice Of Jesús García
Wikimedia CommonsJesús García sacrificed himself to rescue a Mexican village from a runaway train.
Born on Nov. 13, 1881, in the town of Hermosillo in Sonora, Mexico, Jesús García was one of eight children. A waterboy for the Moctezuma Copper Company at 17, he was already promoted to machine engineer when tragedy hit in 1907.
According to Notímerica, the 25-year-old was on his break in the freight yard of Nacozari, Mexico, when smoke began clouding the horizon on Nov. 7. Within moments, he realized that the chimney stack of his train had caused sparks that blew onto the hay atop the first cars. To the terror of García and his peers, that day’s cargo was 70 boxes of dynamite.
García was well aware that an imminent explosion would cause the gas tanks and dynamite reserves littering the freight yard to destroy everything in sight. The haul in question included detonators and fuses, which would lead most men in García’s position to run for their lives.
But García not only refused to run or take cover but hopped aboard the train to put it in reverse and steer the fast-moving bomb as far away from Nacozari as possible. While some posited that García intended to jump off when the train reached desolation, his plans remain mysterious — as he died when the dynamite exploded.
By the time the disaster took his life, García had managed to get the train over three miles away from the town. Some say the explosive debris lasted for several minutes and that the only piece ever recovered from García was one of his boots. While 13 people died that day, the humble and heroic brakeman prevented countless others from joining their fate.
In the end, the town of Nacozari changed its name to Nacozari de García in his honor. After all, without his sacrifice, the village wouldn’t have been much of a town at all. The Mexican government even donated $50,000 to the city due to the publicized disaster, and an obelisk, gravestone, and memorial dedicated to García adorn the town today.
After learning about nine heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice, read about nine Black heroes from American history. Then, learn about nine Holocaust heroes.
