Biography

Carmen Lomas Garza had been born on September 12, 1948 in Kingsville

Kingsville, Texas

As of the census of 2000, there were 25,575 people, 8,943 households, and 6,134 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,848.8 people per square mile . There were 10,427 housing units at an average density of 753.8 per square mile...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. The initial roots of her artwork lay in her family, to whom she is close, and in the Chicano Movement

Chicano Movement

The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The Chicano Movement...

. Garza's parents had been involved in political organizing through the American GI Forum

American GI Forum

The American G.I. Forum is a Congressionally chartered Hispanic veterans and civil rights organization. Its motto is "Education is Our Freedom and Freedom should be Everybody's Business". AGIF currently operates chapters throughout the United States, with a focus on veteran's issues, education,...

, and Garza followed in their footsteps by organizing Chicanos on her college campus. Garza later wrote that the Chicano Movement nourished her goal of being an artist and gave her back her .

She says that her artistic creations helped her "heal the wounds inflicted by discrimination and racism." "I felt like I had to start with my earliest recollections of my life and validate each event or incident by depicting it in a visual format."

Garza currently lives in San Francisco, Ca.

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