Ignacio M. García

I am the Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr. Professor of Western & Latino History at Brigham Young University. I have authored six scholarly history books on Chicano/Mexican American politics and civil rights. Two of them have received best book awards. I have also written a memoir/autobiography, "Chicano While Mormon" which chronicles my life as Chicano activist and faithful Latter-day Saint.

I also wrote a e-novel, "Can Tho", based on my experiences in Viet Nam where I was a combat medic and headed an emergency room in the Mekong Delta. I was there in 1971-72. I grew up in San Antonio and went to Sidney Lanier High School, and after the army attended Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas. For several years I was a journalist, working for several newspaper and also as regional editor for Nuestro Magazine. I once covered the war in Central America and the civil war in Lebanon where I met PLO leader Yasser Arafat. I then got my Ph.D. in history at the University of Arizona.

I have always had a great interest in writing fiction, having published numerous short stories. I have decided to do more fiction even as I continue my scholarly work. One of my books, "When Mexicans Could Play Ball" has been optioned off to a movie studio and I hope to see it on the large screen. I also wrote the screenplay but in that business it is hard to know if my byline will remain.