City Lights celebrates the publication of
Rupert García: The Making of an American Artist, a Testimonio
by Mario T. García
Published by Rutgers University Press
This is the first biography of the renowned American Chicano visual artist and activist Rupert García, drawing on fifty hours of interviews conducted over thirty years and accompanied by eighty images. This in-depth oral history gives an unparalleled look at García’s life and work, tracing his evolution as an artist and the political upheavals that shaped his life and worldview.
Mario T. García’s testimonio places Rupert García’s art in historical perspective, from his beginnings as a working-class Mexican American from California’s Central Valley, his coming of age in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, his involvement in the antiwar movement during the San Francisco State student strike in 1968-69, and his participation in the Chicano Movement and beyond. Influenced by history and politics, García’s vital works of art represent a changing world through the eyes of an artist, speaking to issues of poverty, racism, capitalism, war, and the role of the artist in society.
His art—from revolutionary silkscreen posters to monumental pastels to portraits of political icons like Frida Kahlo, Che Guevara, and Dolores Huerta—serves to critique history and reassess it. It is work that will endure for generations to come.
Mario T. García is a distinguished professor of Chicano studies and history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published over 20 books over the course of his career, including Blowout!: Sal Castro and the Chicano Struggle for Educational Justice and The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America.
Advance praise for Rupert García: The Making of an American Artist, a Testimonio
“Long overdue but worth the wait, this is a critical contribution to U.S. history, American art history, and social sciences. Offering un gran testimonio of vanguard Chicano artist Rupert García, historian Mario García’s book is the model and blueprint for comprehensive examinations of key figures in our shared social struggles and cultural victories.” – Ella Maria Diaz
“With his roots in the revolutionary foundation of the Third World movement, Rupert García’s global perspective is now a legendary part of American art. He takes his place within the context of significant contemporary artists through his powerful graphic complexity, refined image making, and intellectual honesty.” – Amalia Mesa-Bains
“The master of the testimonio does it again! Mario T. García lets an important but overlooked American artist tell the story of his life, with the images both visual and literary to match.” – Gustavo Arellano
This event is made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation