Friday, April 22, 2022 - 09:08

by James Levy
The passing away of Joe Garcia was a blow for Gibraltar. He was a stalwart defender of Gibraltarian rights, both internally and internationally. A consummate journalist who put Gibraltar before anything else.

Joe Garcia was a household name at home ever since I was a little boy. He was a very good friend of my late brother Momy and of my late uncle Sir Joshua. Taking into account this close relationship, I started working with Joe when I was doing the first year of my A Levels over 54 years ago. Some friends and I wrote a weekly column for him at the time, which really reverberated in the community. Obviously, our columns had to be edited by the experienced eagle eye of Joe, but we had loads of fun together.
Later on in life, when I qualified as a lawyer nearly 50 years ago, I acted for him defending six libel writs. These claims were defeated before they went anywhere near a court In turn, I came to value his advice, balance judgement and opinions which helped me in developing my professional practice.