My name is Ignacio Garcia.

My name is Ignacio M. Garcia and I’m the Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Professor of Western & Latino History at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. My degree is in American/Chicana/o history from the University of Arizona. My seven books have dealt with Chicano/Latino politics, civil rights, community studies and sports. I also wrote a memoir, Chicano While Mormon, in which I talk about growing up Latter-day Saint in Texas, going into the Army, serving a tour in Vietnam, then going to the university and becoming involved in the Chicano Movement for civil rights. It is my effort to explain how an orthodox young man, raised in a Mexican branch, became an activist and a scholar while retaining his faith and serving faithfully in his church. Recently, I expanded my scholarship to Mormon studies and am currently working on a book on Eduardo Balderas, the Church’s first translator whose work helped Latino members of the Church to understand and adapt the Latter-day Saint gospel to their needs. It is also a work about religious transnationalism and about Latino Mormon history in the church. In 2019-2020 I will serve as the president of the Mormon History Association. My main goals will be to expand Mormon history’s parameters by emphasizing its international nature and to recruit more Scholars of color/indigenous to the organization and the field. I also hope to spark up a conversation on how Mormon history should be written to be both more inclusive and more expansive. I am married to Alejandra A. Garcia, an incredible woman of faith, a former union organizer and a loving wife, mother, grandmother and someone ready to succor anyone in need. I have four children and ten grandchildren, one grandcat, one grandturtle and three granddogs. I also enjoy writing fiction—though I don’t get to do it enough—and have one novel based on my experiences in Vietnam and two more on the way. Two of my scholarly works have been optioned off for feature films. I like to read, play tennis, take long walks and engage in good conversations.