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This is Irene Ruiz interviewing Mr. Ruben Garcia at the West Branch Library located at 1936 Summit August 24th, 1981, primarily interested in art and artwork, right? Yeah, mostly. Well, I'm really interested in Mexican American art, just like the art they have in California. OK, now, Mr.

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Garcia, before we get into that, I would like for you to tell me something about your early life, where you were born. And when I was born here in Kansas City, Missouri. And uh when was this? 0, 195656. OK. Were your father, your mother and your

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father, were they both from Kansas City, Missouri? Well, my father was born in El Paso, Texas. Well, his mother. Was, I'm not too sure, they're from Chihuahua. We're not too certain on my dad's side of the family, but yeah, and my mom's side is from La

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Paz, Baja, California. Did they live in Texas then? Were they married in Texas or lived there, or did they come my dad, they were like uh. They were like pen pals. I don't know how they got to meet each other, but they were pen pals. They

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were. They would write to each other. And then, uh. My dad decided to go, go there. To see her, yeah, after World War, right after the World War finished World War II. I want to. And They got married. Right away, almost, yeah. But did they live

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in California for a while, or do you know much about it? They came directly to Kansas City? Well, they got married over there, but after they got married, my dad, you know, brought her over here. Mhm. Well, what, what was the reason? See, we're always interested

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in finding out why they came, particularly to Kansas City. Did they already have relatives? Yeah, they were. See, my dad was born in Texas, but then, uh, he was raised here. Oh, that's what I wanted to get. OK. He, he was born in Texas. He was

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reared. Yeah, my, my grandmother, you know, she decided to move up here because there was more employment here. That's when they had the railroads on here, you know, there was just more going on here. OK. And what is your father's name, your father's full name and

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your mother's name? Frank Lucas Garcia. Frank Lucas Garcia and your mother. Alissa Maria. No, Alicia Sophia. That's my sister's name. Alicia. Uh-huh. And what was her other name before Garcia? Sophia. Sophia. But what was the other family name? Avi Aviles and Garcia. OK, so then they

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came roughly in the early or late 40s after World War II, you say. That would be late 40s, right? Well, it was probably early 40s. 40s. Well, the World War II, if you're talking about World War Two, it would have been over in 1945. So that's

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why I'm just trying to I was born in 1956. OK, you were born later, but you know if they came to live right away on the west side or did they live elsewhere? Do you know about where they lived then? Well, they, at first my, my

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grandmother, she lives over here and, I mean she lived over here in uh 23rd and Jarville at first. That's where the family first. Uh, little bit, you know, uh. Where Ralph Hernandez lives. It's on 2030. Forget the address. Probably some of the youngsters. Well, his house,

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that used to be my grandmother's house. Your grandmother's house. Then when she died, well, that, that's when everybody already got married and everything. So they. My dad finally got this house where we're living at now 2312 Bellevue. Well, now, uh, at that time, what was your,

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your father had been in the, in the service, is that it? Yeah. What, what branch of the service or what? The army. Did he serve in Europe or was he in the Pacific? Some part of Africa they stationed in in Africa. And um, did he have

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a job or did he go to school when he came here he had to quit high school because of the depression. He was the oldest one in the family. So he had to he had to support the family because it a large family? How many brothers

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or sisters? Do you know roughly how many he's got He's got 2 half brothers. Then the rest Let's see. Wait a minute. I better think about that. OK, well, that's all right. Yeah, you were trying to recall something about your early life and about how many

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brothers and sisters, so you said you had how many brothers? Um, I'm my. My dad's brothers and sisters or mine? No, you. How many brothers? Oh, OK. I got, I got three brothers and three sisters. Three sisters. I thought before you. Uh-huh, but before that we

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had been talking about your father and you were trying to remember. You said he had dropped out of high school, or out of school, and to help the family. So was that a large family? You were also trying to. Yeah, they were, it was about the

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same amount. Um-hum. So, but then he came here to Kansas City and, uh, what kind of, uh, job, or did he? Well, he, he worked in different, different jobs. What, what were some of the jobs or some of the things he did? He'd be selling apples

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in, in the, like in a corner downtown, Just anything to get, you know, get them by, and it was a lumberjack and. Worked, I think he worked in the railroad for a little while. Um-hum. Do you know what? What company it was OK, and uh were

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they still packing meat packing. Uh-huh. What do you remember which one that was? There were several. You know the, the one by Kemper Arena there, it's closed down now. I don't know exactly what, but he was there. Um-hum. Um-hum. And did he change jobs again, or

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did he stay with them? Well, he, he shifted on different kinds of jobs. Cause on some jobs they'd be temporary. Did your mother work too, outside the. Uh, yeah, she worked for a little while. after she had my, my. My first brother, my oldest brother, she

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worked um. I can't remember where she worked. Um-hum. Now, did you grow up speaking Spanish or English? Well, they were always speaking Spanish at home. Spanish at home. Yeah. But I'm mostly, well, it's like half and half. I really don't know my Spanish as good as

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I should, you know, but. At least you know, I know enough to communicate. Well, we have to remember. I remember one time when uh. In school. Well, it was with one of my, my older brothers and sisters. I remember they told my mom not to be

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speaking Spanish to them. Who told her? One of your brothers? No, no, it was one of the teachers at school one of the teachers at school. OK, so then you said you were born in 1956, 1956. Uh-huh. And so then one of the teachers told your

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mother. Yeah, because I guess they felt that it was slowing them down in their learning. Yeah. I remember my mom got pretty upset, you know. Yeah. I'm glad she kept up with speaking Spanish. Well, I mean, the thing is you have to remember that if, if

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you learn whatever English, or rather whatever Spanish you heard, it was what you heard, that you had not had formal training, so you can't be too hard on on them or yourself because at least like you say, you did hear it. Oh no, yeah, I know.

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I'm glad that's what I'm saying. I'm glad they did, they did teach me what I know now, you know. There's some parents that don't, you know, they don't even. Want to teach them Spanish. Now where did you where did you go to school then? Well, I

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went to grad school in Guadalupe. Guadalupe. Our Lady of America, but it was a Guadalupe Catholic school. And then from there, where did you go to school? Westport. West High School. Did you graduate from there? When did you graduate from 1975. And uh were there any

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other difficulties you yourself had because of the language, or it was just that experience that the teacher was trying to No, not really. Mm Are there any, and how do you remember uh the neighborhood here from say like if you try to think how it is

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now, you know, where you live and the Guadalupe Parish Center and all that, and then if you think back on say In the 50s or 60s, you probably remember the 60s when you were 678, a little better. How do you, do you remember differently? Was there

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more, were there more houses or less? Uh, business or more business and I think there's more business now. Do you think they're? Yeah, I think, uh, People are right now, you know, the Mexican Americans around here, I think they're. They're getting more uh. Expanding more, you

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know, in their business and everything. They don't, I think before that they were proud of you. Like a shame to do what they really wanted to do. Or not really ashamed, but it just felt like. They felt like uh. The outside community wouldn't accept them as

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as much. If the outside community would not accept them. If they did what you know, they really wanted to do like. The shops they're opening up, you know, like Mexican bakery and. You mean because they would be strictly Mexican, so to speak, bakeries and food and

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all that. Back then it was like they wanted. Everybody wanted to be Americanized, you know. We are all American, you know, but now it's different, you know, it's different, you know. People are more proud of what, what they are, you know, and that's good. I'm glad

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it's like that. Mhm. But you don't remember um any instances where you actually encountered any problems because I'm Mexican? I don't know, I've been pretty lucky, I guess I can't remember right now. I know if I, if not talking right now, I'll probably think about it

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and remember some something. Now what, uh, kinds of, um, things were you involved in? Did your family always belong to, say, Guadalupe, for instance, a church? Um-hum, yeah. They did, your family, all of them. And um what about certain activities? Did you have any kind of

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um hobbies or anything that you like to do, you know, like uh Collecting something like stamps or doing anything, were you interested in any of those things as a youngster? I, I, I always like to, uh, draw. Draw. You always. I was into cartoons first. I,

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I still am. I like cartoons. But now I've gotten into, uh, O, Mural pain. OK. Well, we'll get to that in a minute. Now, what else in, in school, I mean, were you active in any clubs or organizations or just in the newspaper. The newspaper. I

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was a cartoonist. Oh, I won, I won the first prize, 1st, 1st place in the honorable mention in my senior year in the art because yeah, because of my cartoons, uh, they, they won statewide. From West Point you mean the boats? Yeah, West, yeah. So you

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did get to enter those, uh-huh. Were you active in anything else? Music or Any other clubs? I was in a basketball team, but that wasn't in high school. It was outside some church, and they were looking for some basketball players. So me and my cousin, we

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decided to get in it. Had a pretty good time. So, in a way, it, it wasn't quite as difficult for you. Did you have to work outside of school or, or part time or during the summers or? Well, I worked, uh, before in a camera shop.

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Camera. In, in the plaza. While you were going to school, you mean high school? Yeah, well, that's how I got the job. I was in the COE program and they got, I was going half the time at school and half the time at work. Now that,

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now that you mention that, I do recall when I was working there, I felt a little uh. Like I felt like I'm. Some prejudices in there with the people I was working with, you know on the plaza. Yeah, well, that camera shop, it was based in

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the plaza. It's just people I was working with, you know, they were always. The talk was like, you know. They, they knew I was Mexican, but they were smiling at my face, but. Yeah, I kind of felt like in a way they. They really didn't like

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me that much, you know. Because I was Mexican. They just say little jokes now and then you get tired of hearing you know. Like if they really didn't want to accept me. Is this the Barnard? Is this a Barnard shop? No, no. This is, uh, up

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on, on the hill from, Um, what's, what's that main road on the plaza Warner Warner Warner, yeah, it's up in there. Um, excuse me. We're talking, uh, Mr. Garcia about your employment on the plaza and, uh, also about some of your involvement with artwork. So did

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you actually have some formal training, say, like in high school or since this was an interest that you had, you probably had just the natural talent, but did you have some classes? Uh, yeah, I took some art classes in, in high school. In high school. And

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they were mostly commercial art, commercial. And, uh, and I went to college for a while in Penn Valley. Uh-huh. After you finished high school, then you went to. Um. For how long? About how long did you go? Uh, about three years. Three years. I took, um,

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did you take some more? Yeah, I took some, uh, advanced commercial art over there too, and um. It's like, they had a class in cartooning that I got into. And, uh, I never did take, uh, painting. You know, I kind of regret it now. I, you

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know, cause I, we need to know more about that. Right. Well, it's never too late. You can still come back. Sure. Yeah. Well, I'm thinking about it right now. OK, then, what, what did you do when you were going to Penn Valley? Did you keep on

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working too, or went to school full time? I was, I was working. Oh, you went at night? Did you go to night classes or? Well, I kind of worked out where I could go in the morning, then work in the afternoon. Oh, you went to school

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in the morning and then worked in the afternoon. Um-hum. Part time. And, uh, did you, did you want to pursue a regular degree or, or a career in arts? Well, I was going to get a bachelor of Arts degree. But You know, there are some requirements

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that which I really thought weren't really necessary, that didn't do to get in you know. I did do very good in my artwork. It's just some of the requirements I I couldn't really. Do too good and so you know I kind of dropped that from that.

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Mhm. So then what, what did you do? What kind of work were you doing then? I mean, did you go into full time? You mean, uh. Over there in the camera place? No, well, besides that, yes. What did you do there and then. Oh, I was,

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I was, uh, like shipping and receiving, Mhm. Now, how long did you do that? For, about two years or I stayed there too long, 4 years. Four years. Yeah. And it was really a place, a nowhere place cause. You weren't earning anything or, or. Well, It

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wasn't only that, it was, there was just like a. No benefits and no future. So I was trying to find a place to get out of it, you know. Finally, my cousin said that they were hanging over. Uh, Mobil Oil Corporation. So, that's where I'm working

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now. Oh, so you went to? Now, you've been with him for several years now? Well, he'll be, It'll be three years this October. Um-hum. What, uh, what kind of job I'm a, a mail machine operator. Mail machine operator. And then, there you do have certain benefits.

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Oh, yeah. It's a good place. It's a full time. Yeah. Employment, I, I work on nights right now. Well, I was working in days, but they, they bumped me and this other guy off because, uh, some guys that had more seniority than us that they were

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working on nights. They wanted to get back on days, so they, You know, they take down the less. People with seniority, you know. Um-hum. But do you have a chance to, to advance or to get into. Oh, yeah. Some other kind of position there, they're opening.

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Yeah. So you'll be able to. It takes time, though, you know. It's just. Um-hum. Do they have some kind of a training program or anything like that where you can. Well, I could, um, they pay you, they pay your college. Um-hum. If you want to go

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to college, but it's, What they want you to take, you know, something that would benefit them. I'm not into that. Well then, if they pay my way for college and let me take what I want to take, you know, I'd be taking art, you know, they

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wouldn't let me do that. You want to do that. Well, it wouldn't hurt you to get a, a regular degree. As long as your emphasis. Oh, yeah. Could be on art. And that would be one way of getting it. And. Uh-huh they could do that, uh,

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certainly, you, you should think about that. Now, uh, so then, in addition to that, then I know you've been doing these other things. Say for instance, you said besides cartoons, you got interested in another area of art or what? Uh, that neurop pain. Uh-huh. Neuro, now,

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you've done this just on your own again without actual training? Or, uh. Well, yeah, yeah, it's really on our own, yeah. Um-hum. And, uh. So, yeah. Well, I don't know how it all started. We, me and this, uh, this friend of mine, yeah, his name is

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Henry Montes, yeah, Montes, all right. Um, well, we always, uh, he, he, when he was in the service, you know, he was in California. You know, and when he came back, he'd always be talking about How, how Good luck in the murals were in California and

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has so many. Murals where, you know, I mean, it was something. To me, I was thinking to myself, guy, wouldn't it be nice if we could have something like that in the west side or, you know, the Mexican districts around here, you know. So we were

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always talking about that. And finally we got a chance to experiment, do something, yeah. Yeah, uh, you know that youth center up, um, next door to the Guadalupe Center. I was, I was, uh, taking care of the kids at the time. And Danny Torres, he was

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taking care of the center. And, uh, I told him about that, we were talking about that. And all of a sudden, I think I don't know how it all began, but he told us, what would you like to do? A mirror on the walls here, you

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know, cause they just looked dead and needed something. So, right away, we jumped, jumped at the chance, you know. And we were scared at first, you know, we, we thought we'd really mess up, you know. But at our first try, it was pretty good, you know.

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They furnished the paints and all that. Oh, yeah. All you did was. Yeah, the center paid, paid us for the paints, you know. They weren't paying us for our work, but at least we were, well, I could understand it because we, we were trying it the

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first time, you know, and we did pretty good. Now this was when Mr. Torres was director there. And then um. Now we're, we're doing a a mural for Channel 9. Uh, Richard Herrera, he, he's got a program on it comes. Comes, uh, monthly on TV. Um-hum.

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Yeah. Now, this mural will be. It will be on TV, yeah. OK. When we finish. When you finish it. You've been working on it for some time? Uh, about a month, yeah. About a month. Now, is this to be used exclusively or primarily for the. Yeah,

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it's primarily for the, for the, um, program. It's a. The background. Yeah. Uh-huh. But this will be, this is through Channel 9. I mean, they're paying for it, Channel 9. Yeah. Um-hum. And they're paying, you both are working on it? Well, they're, they're paying us just

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the same. Like, they're paying us for the paints and everything. They provided the canvas for us and everything. Um-hum. But they're not going to pay you for your services? Uh, no. No, but this is a commercial. Saying you were doing this venture for Channel 9. And

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now are you doing anything else or are you involved with anybody else? That's the, that's the latest project we're doing, uh, what we plan for in the future, I hope we can do it is we, we wanna do an outside mural. A real big one On

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the west side. On the west side somewhere. Yeah. You don't know where just yet. Uh-huh. It's a real big, you know, Mexican mural. Well, perhaps if, if they do go ahead with this project or they're talking about it, or maybe. Uh, well, there is some talk

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about it. Uh and this elderly, the housing, you know, this, um, other place over here, the high rise. Oh, yeah, yeah. They did tell us about, yeah, uh, Barreto, he told us about that, and he asked us if we, if we were interested in doing it,

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and we said yes. So yeah, we did get an offer for that, but the thing that we, we're worried about is like we don't have enough, uh. Like, we, sometimes we need, uh, no, we're getting the experience now. Um-hum. It's that we don't have enough, uh,

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material, like. Oh. To look at, to get ideas for the, our murals. That's what we need. That's why the library books are overdue. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, you can use those and we have others. Yeah, that's what, uh, that's the only thing we need, really. Uh-huh,

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OK. Well, I'm. We really, uh, Me and him, you know, we work together pretty good, you know, because we think about the same. You know things. OK, we'll do an interview on Mr. Montes too, but has he had training too? You might just mention here briefly.

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Has he had. About the same, well, not really, no. No, he has. This experience. Now, about how many hours or how much time do you set aside a certain amount of time like you work, uh, per day or, you know, that you. Well, sometimes we, we

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don't, we don't work every day, you know, but like, We'll work like, OK, when I get off of work, you know, which is 7:30, I'll sleep first, you know, and then he comes around, around 3 o'clock or 2, you know, then we go on to the

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exam. Work a little bit on the. Mhm. So, you just do a little bit at a time? Yeah, a little bit at a time. Now if we were getting paid for all this stuff, we'd probably be get more at it. You know. We figured since we're

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not getting paid for a while, you know. I I just take it easy. Take it easy. Yeah, but you are learning. It is experience. Now, uh, it's, we're doing what we want to do, you know. We're interested in that. We're trying to get people around here

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interested in it, you know, like that. You're talking about getting the. The guys around about, about our age, yeah, but. Right now, I know there's some people interested in it. It just, they're hard to find, I guess. Try to. To get them to be aware of

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the possibilities of things to be done. Now as as you look ahead, what are some of your plans for the for the future, for instance, you want to continue to. Well, There's two things. I, I, I'm still. I still would like to be a cartoonist, but

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I haven't. That's your main interest in cartoons. I got this, uh, comic strip in Dos Mundos, and it's called Chito's Barrio. I don't know if you've seen it or not. But. I did try to, uh, get it syndicated one time, but I didn't get no response

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from them. You didn't? So, you have to try again. Yeah, to keep on. Now, um, for this Los Mundos, you do it free or do you do. Well, no, no. I asked them. I told them, well, can you pay me a little bit for this? Oh,

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sure. They're, they're paying me 10 a script. And, uh, so then you want to continue the cartoon. Yeah, well, that, and then this mural painting got me interested too. So, I like, Both, both arts, really. Um-hum. I know you would like to get more training in

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that other area of the mural. Yeah, the mural, yeah. Well, it's never too late, you know, you could still, Because I, I like to ident identify my artwork. With me and you know, ta rasa, you know, the Mexican Americans, you know, it's just something, you know,

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I like to do, you know, I like to show it, you know, that's the only way I could express. You know, how the culture is. That's your way of doing it. Now, is there any reason why art in particular, is it, did your father have any

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interest in, like I said, he had some bad breaks, you know. He could have been a commercial artist, you know, he was, I think he was, he did get a get a scholarship or something for it, but he couldn't take it because of, you know, the

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depression and everything. He couldn't do it. And uh. I got an uncle. He, he's, he died already. He was a commercial artist. Um. Where did he work? For some time. Uh-huh, but where? In somewhere else? He was, no, I think he was here. Yeah. Yeah. So,

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that's basically it, uh, what you're in, OK. Well, unless there's something else that you wish to add, I certainly want to thank you, Mr. Garcia, for this interview. You're welcome.