Mexican-American author donates collection to University

By: Wardah Khalid

Posted: 10/27/05

Mexican-American fiction author Lionel Garcia, Class of 1956, has donated his published and unpublished works, including manuscripts of television shows, operas and books, handwritten notebooks of early drafts, photographs, correspondence and newspaper clippings to Texas A&M.

Garcia said he agreed to donate his papers to A&M at a time when there was a lot of controversy about the University's undersized minority enrollment.

"It was a choice between that and another university, and I thought it would be a perfect way to show that minorities do attend A&M and do well," Garcia said.

Garcia will present a lecture at 4 p.m. in Cushing Memorial Library in celebration of his donation.

The 6th annual Mayo Lecture, "Reflections on a Lifetime of Writing," will mark the opening of a major exhibit devoted to Garcia's life and work, which will be open to the public until March.

The exhibit includes personal memorabilia such as diplomas, photos of his family, A&M, and graduation pictures and certificates, said Rebecca Hankins, a curator of the Cushing Memorial Library.

Hankins said Garcia's background plays an important role in his writing.

Garcia was born in San Diego, Texas in 1935 and was affected deeply by the Hispanic storytelling tradition, according to his Web site.

"He talks about his upbringing, where he went from humble beginnings in an impoverished community to what he was able to achieve and how A&M was so critical in his life in making him the success that he is," Hankins said. "I think that's what he wants people to see."

Garcia, a trained veterinarian, had his first stories published in a literary magazine while at A&M in 1956. He was a member of A&M's Corps of Cadets and received his doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1965.

The author said he became a veterinarian because he wanted to work as a vet by day and write by night.

"I am always working on something," Garcia said. "I'm not proud of any particular work. I just write and leave the rest to the critics."

Chris Morrow, curator for outreach of the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, said the papers will help anyone doing literary studies because they show how a text goes from a writer's brain to a book.

"It gives students insight into a writer who was at the same campus that they are and Garcia revises all the time, so they can view the writing process at work and make arguments about the different versions," Morrow said.

The Cushing Memorial Library's literature collection also has papers from Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes and a few science fiction writers such as Rudyard Kipling, Michael Moorcock, George RR Martin and Joe Lansdale, Morrow said.

Morrow said the event is their way of recognizing Garcia's donation.

"We are very excited about Garcia's collection," he said. "He's a force within both Texas and national writing."