Oral history interview, Richard Garcia, 2013 (video and transcript)

Richard Garcia, who is currently a part of the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County and the Latino Task Force in Boulder County, is the founder and the executive director for the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition. He talks about growing up in Monte Vista, Colorado, in the San Luis Valley, and his family’s origins in northern New Mexico. He also describes getting accepted to the University of Colorado, Boulder, through the Migrant Action Program and living in the Quonset and Butler huts on campus. He later describes the bilingual education system in the Boulder Valley School District and discusses the importance of bilingual education and affordable higher education; Alvarado Village in Boulder; running for the Boulder Valley school board; racism; Latino participation in politics; punishment for speaking Spanish in schools during his childhood; and the loss of Spanish language in the Latino community in general.