Nasario García dedicated his life to educating others in a variety of settings, including universities and prisons. A native of rural New Mexico and a beloved writer and folklorist, in Beyond My Adobe Schoolhouse García reflects on his experiences of being educated and of being an educator. He takes readers from his childhood in a one-room schoolhouse through graduate school and to universities and other settings in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Colorado, and New Mexico, all places in which he spent time teaching in various capacities. Beyond My Adobe Schoolhouse is a love song to education and a reminder to everyone that it is possible to find a life, love, and purpose beyond the circumstances into which they were born.
“Beyond My Adobe Schoolhouse is one of the most heartfelt, fascinating, and charming memoirs I have read in a long time. It tells the full arc of García’s educational life, from a humble, one-room adobe schoolhouse in a tiny village on the Río Puerco to a distinguished career as a professor, poet, writer, and translator.…It is the New Mexico equivalent of The Education of Henry Adams. I highly recommend Beyond My Adobe Schoolhouse.”—Douglas Preston, author of The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
“This memoir will touch the hearts of all those who love New Mexico.…Beyond My Adobe Schoolhouse will become a classic memoir of a beloved author that explores the intricacies of education and culture in modern New Mexico.”—V. B. Price, author of The Orphaned Land: New Mexico’s Environment Since the Manhattan Project
Nasario García has published over thirty books of folklore, poetry, fiction, and children’s stories, including No More Bingo, Comadre! Stories (UNM Press).
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Beginning: Long Ago
Chapter 2. The Santa Barbara/Martíneztown Nightmare
Chapter 3. A Hop, Skip, and a Jump
Chapter 4. Turning Over a New Leaf
Chapter 5. Time, Perseverance, and Encouragement
Chapter 6. A New Dawn Arrives
Chapter 7. Granada: Faraway but at Home
Chapter 8. Pittsburgh: An Unforeseen Place
Chapter 9. A Dream Becomes a Reality
Chapter 10. Amid Del Monte Cornfields
Chapter 11. Pleasant Memories Linger
Chapter 12. The Journey Is Ended
Chapter 13. Then and Now
Appendix A. Foreign Countries Visited
Appendix B. Memorable Career Moments
Also by Nasario García
Book Awards and Honors