Author

James E. Garcia

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.”

COMMENTARY

We all know Trump did it, but what must matter is the letter of the law

By: - March 31, 2023

On Thursday, a Manhattan grand jury voted to criminally indict former President Donald Trump on more than 30 counts of business fraud, including his alleged effort to conceal a plot to pay porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their past affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election. We all know he did it. […]

COMMENTARY

A year after Russia’s terrorist attack against Ukraine, the terrorism continues

By: - February 27, 2023

The CIA posts a list online of the world’s most notorious international terrorist groups. There, you’ll find names and descriptions for some 65 organizations, like al-Qaeda, the group that slaughtered nearly 3,000 Americans at the World Trade Center on 9-11. There’s Boko Haram in Nigeria, which kidnapped 300 schoolgirls in 2014, marrying many of them […]

COMMENTARY
Biden state of the union

Biden may be old, but don’t underestimate his political stamina

By: - February 9, 2023

A State of Union address is a weird animal. As a writer, I find it to be an extremely clumsy rhetorical device. For one thing, it’s not easy for a president to keep people glued to a screen for an 80-minute speech without a bathroom or commercial break, no matter how many people draped in […]

COMMENTARY

Katie Hobbs may not speak all that loudly, but she has a lot to say

By: - 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 […]

COMMENTARY

Tuesday’s election was a vote for democracy and a rebuke of Republican liars

By: - 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. […]

COMMENTARY
Katie Hobbs

Katie Hobbs on how Arizona Latinos would fare if she’s elected governor

By: - 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 […]

COMMENTARY

On November 8, vote for democracy, before it’s too late

By: - 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 […]

COMMENTARY
Kari Lake

Lake labels Ducey a human trafficker during Hispanic chamber event

By: - 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 […]

COMMENTARY

What Biden has and, maybe just as importantly, has not done

By: - 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 — […]

COMMENTARY

The key question for the January 6 committee, and all Americans: Is anyone above the law?

By: - 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 […]

COMMENTARY

Yes, we should control who gets to own a gun and how they use it

By: - 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 […]

COMMENTARY

Overturning Roe v. Wade, part of the ‘war on women,’ will leave blood on the hands of the GOP

By: - 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 […]