Author

James E. Garcia
James E. Garcia is a Phoenix-based journalist, playwright and communications consultant. As a journalist, he has worked as a reporter, columnist, editor and foreign correspondent. He was the first Latino Affairs correspondent for KJZZ, and the first Latino editor of a major progressive news weekly in the U.S., The San Antonio Current. James has taught creative and non-fiction writing, ethnic studies, theater, literature and Latino politics at ASU. The founder and producing artistic director of New Carpa Theater Co., James is the author of more than 30 plays, including the upcoming “The Two Souls of Cesar Chavez.”
Katie Hobbs may not speak all that loudly, but she has a lot to say
By: James E. Garcia - January 13, 2023
Stop me if you’ve heard this, but Gov. Katie Hobbs is not exactly known for her oratorical skills. She’s no MLK, Jr., or Barack Obama, or, thankfully, Kari Lake, who spent decades behind a mic at the local Fox affiliate honing her speaking chops before taking Hobbs on as the GOP nominee in November. But […]
Tuesday’s election was a vote for democracy and a rebuke of Republican liars
By: James E. Garcia - November 10, 2022
In the pre-dawn hours after Tuesday’s midterm elections, former Republican congressman-turned-MSNBC pundit Carlos Curbelo nailed it. “We called them election deniers. They’re all just liars,” he said. It couldn’t be better said. The people who’ve continued to insist that former President Donald J. Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election are just that, liars. […]
Katie Hobbs on how Arizona Latinos would fare if she’s elected governor
By: James E. Garcia - November 8, 2022
During her final weekend of campaigning, Arizona’s Democratic candidate for governor, Katie Hobbs, took questions Nov. 5 from Arizona Mirror columnist James E. Garcia on La Onda 1190 AM/107.5 FM and the “Vanguardia America with James E. Garcia” podcast. GARCIA: Let’s just jump right in. What will a Katie Hobbs administration mean for Latino voters […]
On November 8, vote for democracy, before it’s too late
By: James E. Garcia - November 3, 2022
Election Day is just around the corner. Let’s take stock. It’s been said, I know, but it has to be said again and again, until it sinks in: The future of our democracy is on the ballot on November 8. On Wednesday, President Biden repeated that warning. “As I stand here today, there are candidates […]
Lake labels Ducey a human trafficker during Hispanic chamber event
By: James E. Garcia - October 14, 2022
It wasn’t a debate, which is what we all really wanted to see, but we did get to watch the Republican and Democratic candidates for Arizona governor respond, one at a time, to hot topic questions about what they plan to do if they get the job. Last week’s candidate forum was hosted by the […]
What Biden has and, maybe just as importantly, has not done
By: James E. Garcia - August 26, 2022
President Biden has announced he will be cutting or eliminating student loan debt for millions of Americans. It’s the latest in a growing list of tangible, beneficial achievements by his administration. One of the best ways to assess what President Biden has accomplished since taking office is to put his administration’s achievements into context — […]
The key question for the January 6 committee, and all Americans: Is anyone above the law?
By: James E. Garcia - June 17, 2022
I was about four or five when I witnessed corruption for the first time. I was standing on the back seat of our car — not safe, but common back then — when my great uncle got pulled over by a traffic cop in Tampico, Mexico. At some point, the cop let my mom and […]
Yes, we should control who gets to own a gun and how they use it
By: James E. Garcia - May 26, 2022
As I sat down to write about the mass shooting that left 19 children and three adults dead in Uvalde, Texas, it occurred to me that they hadn’t even finished burying the 13 people killed by a white supremacist in the gun massacre a week before in Buffalo, N.Y. That’s how good we’ve gotten at […]
Overturning Roe v. Wade, part of the ‘war on women,’ will leave blood on the hands of the GOP
By: James E. Garcia - May 5, 2022
There’s a reason the Declaration of Independence reads “all men are created equal” and not “all men and women are created equal.” Simply stated, the Founding Founders were all white guys who didn’t think women were their equals. In fact, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution after that, basically regarded women […]
Pleased to meet you, hope you guess the name of my latest variant
By: James E. Garcia - April 26, 2022
Hi. Remember me? No, no, wait! Don’t be afraid. We met a couple of years ago. January 20, 2020, to be exact. Snohomish County, Washington. Just north of Seattle. I know it’s been a while, but it’s not an easy day to forget. I remember every detail: You wore blue and I, well, not to […]
Bending the moral arc of the universe, one achievement at a time
By: James E. Garcia - April 8, 2022
There are days, now more than ever in my life, when I don’t really know what direction “the arc of the moral universe” is bending. On March 31, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., quoting a 19th-century abolitionist and minister named Theodore Parker, used those words in what would regrettably be his final Sunday […]
The world’s latest wartime monument to human cruelty: Mariupol
By: James E. Garcia - March 24, 2022
Don’t look away. I know it’s hard to watch reports of the genocide unfolding in Ukraine. But the only thing worse would be to shrug and look away, to treat it all as just another tragic story about a distant and abstract horror that has little if anything to do with our everyday lives. Nothing […]