Garcia, Manny

Archive Tucson is the oral history project of Special Collections at the University of Arizona Libraries. This interview is with Manny Garcia and covers the following themes:

• - Family history in ranching, starting with Manny’s great-great-grandfather in New Spain. The family’s ranching odyssey across Mexico, ultimately to Sonora and Tucson.

• - Stories about Tucson when it was controlled by Mexico. Apache raids. Manny’s grandfather’s birth in the Tucson presidio during the 1870s and his Barrio Hollywood area ranch.

• - The Garcia family’s move to Avra Valley to escape Tucson’s sprawl in 1890. Other Avra Valley ranches at the turn of the 20th century.

• - Cotton in Avra Valley.

• - Ranch food.

• - Ranch work, chasing stray cattle, hay bailing, and increasing automation.

• - Downtown Tucson in Manny’s youth, dating, and marital customs among Hispanic ranching families.

• - Manny’s Korean War experience.

• - Attended meatcutting school in Toledo, OH.

• - Move to Tucson in mid-1950s and work at Time Market as a butcher.

• - 35 years of meatcutting, moving between Tucson and California for work, and ultimately returning to Tucson in 1994.

This interview was recorded at Manny Garcia’s house in Tucson, Arizona on July 6th and 11th, 2017.