Manny Garcia, author of “An Accidental Soldier: Memoir of a Mestizo in Vietnam,” will sign and discuss his book on Saturday, October 16, at 2 p.m. at the UNM Bookstore as part of the "Viet Nam: Voices and Visions Unlimited Symposium.
This rare, first-hand account of the Vietnam War through the eyes of a Mestizo-American was awarded the Utah Center for the Book’s 2003 Utah Book Award for non-fiction.
Garcia, now an attorney in Salt Lake City, Utah, joined the U.S. Army in the 1960s and became an Airborne Ranger. Readers follow Garcia through training camp, jump school and deep into the Vietnam jungles, where Garcia poignantly describes the ambushes, skirmishes; and the natural inhabitants; including leeches the size of small snakes, boa constrictors and tigers.
Toward the end of his tour, Garcia sustained severe shrapnel wounds and recuperated in the military hospitals at Clark Air Force Base and Okinawa. He was then sent to Oakland Army Depot where he was at battle again—this time with a bureaucracy that had no record of his service.
Other symposium features include “Another Vietnam—Pictures of the War from the Other Side: Photos by North Vietnamese Combat Photographers” on exhibit at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology through January 16, 2005, “Vietnam Visions: Art from the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum,” “Cu Chi Vietnam 1968-1969: Photographs by Herbert Lotz” on exhibit at the University Art Museum and Jonson Gallery opening October 15.
Betsy Ross, reviewer for the Utah Bar Journal, said, “An Accidental Soldier … will challenge your ideas about race, identity, war, and the human condition. Garcia is challenging our self-righteousness at a time in our nation’s history when self-righteousness is perhaps our greatest weakness.”
Contact: Amanda Sutton, (505) 277-0655