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.”
‘Redistricting’ may sound boring, but what if I told you the future of our democracy is at stake
By: James E. Garcia - December 31, 2021
The outcome of the so-called redistricting process well underway across the nation promises to have a profound effect on the lives of most Americans for at least the next 10 years.
Amid our country’s racial reckoning, Katie Hobbs’ apology may be too little, too late
By: James E. Garcia - December 9, 2021
I admit it. I’m disappointed that Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ campaign to become Arizona’s next governor seems now to have all but imploded. Not that I had already decided to vote for her. I know better than to make a decision as important as that a year out from Election Day. The fate of […]
How what many labeled a quixotic recall movement led to the ouster of Arizona’s most powerful politician
By: James E. Garcia - November 26, 2021
One of the great stories in Arizona politics involves the recall 10 years ago this month of then-Republican Senate President Russell Pearce, the far-right author of the single most anti-immigrant bill in modern U.S. history, Senate Bill 1070. More commonly known as the “show us your papers” law, its passage wreaked terror in the immigrant […]
Meet ‘Paul Gosar the Titan slayer,’ Arizona’s white nationalist icon
By: James E. Garcia - November 11, 2021
Congressman Ruben Gallego got it right when he recently described his House colleague, Paul Gosar, as “Just an awful human being.” Gallego was commenting on the news that Gosar had posted an altered anime video of himself on Twitter, which he’s since removed, that depicted him executing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, by slashing the back […]
Today’s ‘civil war’ is an attack on the rule of law
By: James E. Garcia - October 28, 2021
There is a civil war underway in America. It’s not the same sort of war we fought more than 150 years ago, when Americans took sides on whether slavery was good or evil, donned blue and gray uniforms, then slaughtered each other on the battlefield. This is a war that’s happening in slow-motion, a largely […]
‘Driving While Brown’ and Arizona’s ‘Latino resistance’
By: James E. Garcia - October 19, 2021
Every great drama has a villain and a hero. The trouble with recounting the drama surrounding Arizona’s decades-long cultural and political clashes over immigration is that there have been so many villains and heroes it’s hard to know where to start. In that case, you do what Terry Greene Sterling and Jude Joffe-Block did: you […]
Kyrsten Sinema is no John McCain, try as she might
By: James E. Garcia - October 1, 2021
I’ve held off on criticizing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema since she entered office in 2018 largely because I’ve always agreed with her on one key point: a bipartisan approach to solving our country’s biggest problems is generally a good thing. The way I see it, our elected officials should wake up every morning and ask not […]
The GOP: In Trump (and no one else) we trust
By: James E. Garcia - September 16, 2021
News about the outcome of the recall election in California combined with the latest revelations about the chaotic final days of the Trump administration got me to wondering: So, Republicans, you’re still okay with Donald Trump leading your party? In the Republican-led campaign to oust California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — which, thank God, failed […]
It was America’s ‘forgotten war,’ but we can’t forget the girls and women of Afghanistan
By: James E. Garcia - September 7, 2021
It’s been about a week since the last U.S. troops flew out of the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, ending our 20-year war with the Taliban. It was the longest war in U.S. history — some called it “America’s forgotten war” — but the 24-hour news cycle has already turned its attention to other stories, like […]
Biden may not regret leaving Afghanistan, but I do
By: James E. Garcia - August 18, 2021
On Sunday, after a 20 years of war against the U.S.-backed regime in Afghanistan, the Taliban retook control. To many, it’s an almost unimaginable turn of events. Others insist they saw it coming, though almost no one believed it would happen this quickly. Military and intelligence experts had predicted a Taliban takeover in the wake […]
In the GOP fight for the White House, the unvaccinated and children are collateral damage
By: James E. Garcia - August 9, 2021
Some days, I don’t know whether to scream or cry about the surge of the COVID-19. The national death toll from the virus has now topped 616,000 — more people than live in Tucson, Milwaukee or Baltimore. And experts say that, unless we take dramatic steps to curb the spread of the Delta variant of […]
Mr. Potato Head ruminates on Trump, coup tourists and Sasquatch
By: James E. Garcia - July 27, 2021
It’s been awhile since Arizona Mirror columnist, playwright and sometimes satirist James E. Garcia has checked in with Mr. Potato Head, America’s favorite gender-neutral tuber turned high-dollar consultant for Republican politicos. Garcia recently caught up with Head backstage at the Arizona Federal Theatre, where thousands had gathered for a weekend rally in Phoenix by former […]