Stories

Professor Alma Garcia: “Club Oasis” A Memoir by Alma M. García

“Hay que esprimir la vida cada día.”  “Squeeze out of life as much as you can every day.”

--Amado García Rodarte (Pop) (1909-1985)

“Always reach for the stars even when others tell you it’s impossible”

--Alma A. García. (Mom) (1920-2011)

Professor Garcia’s memoir is in the last stages of production and will be available directly from Floricanto Press (and Amazon) in 2021. Her book, Club Oasis: Childhood Memories- A Memoir, represents a new stage in Professor Garcia’s career in that it is her first work of fiction. The memoir, Club Oasis, is a collection of stories from Professor Garcia’s childhood as a young Latina growing up in El Paso, Texas.  Professor Garcia focuses on specific experiences or "moments" from her childhood between the ages of nine (4th grade) through twelve (7th grade). Professor Garcia introduces the reader to Pinky García, her younger self who grows up in the border city of El Paso, Texas during the early 1960s. She creates The Club Oasis, a magical world in her upstairs porch, a space in which her imagination soars with the love, encouragement and tenderness of her grandmother, mother and, particularly her father who shares Pinky’s adventures with enthusiasm, a sense of humor, playfulness and endearing enchantment. Pinky develops from a playful nine-year old far beyond her years in maturity into a blossoming adolescent displaying compassion, pride in her Mexican heritage, an unwavering commitment to her family and the values they instilled in her: respect and love for family, particularly her father, a fierce independence and belief in the power of education and the confidence to believe in herself while always maintaining a spirit of adventure and a sense of humor. She focuses on this time period because these are the years that she has her most vivid memories of her interaction with three very important people in her family Nama [ maternal grandmother],  her mother and her father - and her unfolding awareness of the world around her in El Paso. Professor Garcia’s recollections of events focus on those specific life experiences or “moments” from her childhood that reinforced the values, hopes and aspirations taught to her by Nama [her maternal grandmother], Mom and Pop. Professor Garica hopes that her memoir Club Oasis: Childhood Memories will inspire children and young adults, particularly girls, particularly girls, to soar in search of their dreams. © 2020 Alma M. Garcia

“Club Oasis: Childhood Memories by Alma M. García is a heartwarming and memorable story about “Pinky” (Alma), a wonderfully precocious and intelligent child whose creative imagination touches our heart and makes us laugh. With rare honesty, she vividly illuminates her boundless love for family, especially her father, and inspires children to reach for the stars. It’s a must-read.”

--Francisco Jiménez, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award-winning author of The Circuit, Breaking Through, Reading Out and Taking Hold

“Come, fall in love with Pinky García—the fun-loving deejay, earnest reporter, and intrepid detective. Offering evocative episodes from a borderlands girlhood, The Club Oasis: Childhood Memories is a child’s eye memoir to be savored and shared. This smart, spunky narrator does not walk between two worlds but creates her own path rich in imagination, familial warmth, Mexican tradition, and American popular culture. She observes with subtle insight the cultural tensions within her family and across El Paso, picking up nuances not always meant for children. Infused with the optimism of youth, Pinky and her adventures will resonate across generations.”

--Vicki L. Ruiz, author of From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in TwentiethCentury America; co-editor of Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia.