Getting to know your professor: Spanish professor Dr. Jose Garcia
Jenna Rice
Issue date: 10/23/09 Section: News
|
Garcia immigrated from Cuba to the United States when he was in the ninth grade. When he arrived, Garcia attended George Washington High School through eleventh grade. Later, he moved and finished high school at Bergenfield High School in New Jersey.
Desiring to continue his education, Garcia went to Bergen Community College for a year, even though he was still unsure about what he wanted to do with his life.
Afterwards, he went to Montclair St. University, where he declared a major in political science and a minor in Spanish.
In the meantime, he discovered that he really enjoyed learning about Latin American literature and culture, so he decided to pursue it further.
After graduating, Garcia got a full scholarship to the University of Arizona, where he got his masters in Hispanic literature.
Garcia decided to be a professor at FSC for many reasons. First, he has always loved Florida, since he can still be surround by much of the Hispanic culture that he grew up with in Cuba.
Second, he enjoys this part of Florida. "I like Lakeland, and I like the people at Florida Southern College," Garcia said. He also said that he likes the fact that Cuba is only a one-hour flight from the Tampa airport.
Garcia teaches many of the Spanish language and literature classes, such as Spanish 101 and 102, conversational spanish, cinema for hispanic conversation, and Latin American studies. He actually helped set-up the Latin American studies minor on campus.
Personally, Garcia loves to spend time with his family. He has two children. Anabel is five-years-old and Alex is about two-and-a-half years old. Garcia loves his encouraging wife, Deborah, whom he likes to call "Debbie."
"My wife is very encouraging…always supporting me with the stuff that I do," Garcia said.
Aside from teaching, Garcia is currently in the process of writing a book about the Mariel Boatlift exodus. The Mariel Boatlift exodus was probably one of the largest exoduses in modern history. Between April 15 and Oct. 31, 1980, approximately 125,000 Cubans left Cuba.
"Myself being one of those," Garcia said.
He would like his book to be like a testimonial-an oral history about the exodus.
Be the first to comment on this story