Rupert García: The Making of an American Artist, a Testimonio is a compelling story of a working-class Mexican American from California’s Central Valley who became a major American artist with national and international recognition. Mario T. García’s oral history of Rupert García, based on extensive interviews over many years, provides a compelling autobiographical narrative of the life and times of an American artist. This testimonio places Rupert García’s art in historical perspective, spanning his beginnings in Stockton, California and his time in the Air Force, including participating in the U.S. war in Vietnam, to his experience at San Francisco State during the historic San Francisco State student strike in 1968-69. Influenced by history and politics, Rupert García’s art speaks to a changing America through the eyes of an artist, speaking to issues of race, class, imperialism, war, and the role of the artist in society.

MARIO T. GARCÍA is a distinguished professor of Chicano studies and history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published over 20 books over the course of his career, including Blowout!: Sal Castro and the Chicano Struggle for Educational Justice and The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America.

Introduction
Chapter One—Stockton Boy
Chapter Two—School Days
Chapter Three—Junior College and the City
Chapter Four—Indochina
Chapter Five—San Francisco State
Chapter Six—The Mission Cultural Renaissance
Chapter Seven—Moving On
Chapter Eight—Fluorescence
Chapter Nine—Millennial Artist
Afterword
Notes
Index