by Nasario Garcia
ISBN 978-936744-10-7 $19.95
250 pages, 39 photos 6x9
First Place, Best History Book, 2015 International Latino Book Awards
Winner, Short Story Collection, 2015 New Mexico Press Women Book Awards
Best New Mexico History Book: 2014 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
Folklorist, oral historian, and linguist Nasario García has assembled a bittersweet anthology of vivid and varied recollections of life and tradition in Bernalillo, New Mexico, between the 1930s and the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is instructive for all of us to be reminded how recently and how radically Hispanic New Mexico, represented here by the town of Bernalillo, has been transformed, for better or worse. Nasario García has listened intently to the old-timers of his native Bernalillo, sharing their words in both English and Spanish for all to understand and appreciate. The result is his twentieth oral history book, each a true gem for all students of New Mexico history and culture.
REVIEWS
Albuquerque the Magazine features an interview with Nasario Garcia that puts this new book in context:
THE AUTHOR
Nasario Garcia
Nasario García was born in Bernalillo, New Mexico and grew up in the Río Puerco Valley southeast of Chaco Canyon. He received his BA and MA degrees in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of New Mexico. While a doctoral student at the University of Granada, Spain he studied under the eminent linguist Dr. Manuel Alvar. García was awarded his Ph. D. in XIX century Spanish literature from the University of Pittsburgh.
He began his teaching career at Chatham College in Pittsburgh and subsequently taught in Illinois, New Mexico and Colorado. At the University of Southern Colorado, he served as Assistant Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs as well as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.
As a university professor, García received numerous research, teaching, and community awards. He has lectured in this country and abroad—including Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Spain. His lectures linking New Mexico to Spain culturally and linguistically were at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), the Casa de América, both in Madrid, and the University of Alcalá de Henares. In 1991 he was elected president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). He also served as president of the New Mexico Folklore Society.
For the past 30-plus years García has devoted his life to the preservation of Hispanic language, culture and folklore of New Mexico. He has authored/co-authored 23 books. Among them are—Rattling Chains and Other Stories for Children: Ruido de cadenas y otros cuentos para niños (Arte Público Press, 2009), finalist, New Mexico Book Awards, 2009, and The Naked Rainbow and Other Stories: El arco iris y otros cuentos (University of New Mexico Press, 2009), Southwest Book of the Year, Tucson-Pima County Public Library, 2009.
His latest publications include Fe y tragedias: Faith and Tragedies in Hispanic Villages of New Mexico (Río Grande Books, 2010), finalist, New Mexico Book Awards, 2011, and Bolitas de oro: Poems of My Marble-Playing Days (University of New Mexico Press, 2010). Grandpa Lolo’s Navajo Saddle Blanket: La tilma de Abuelito Lolo, a children’s book, will be published in 2012. An Emeritus Professor of Spanish, García currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.