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The author of Tiempos Lejanos: Poetic Images from the Past returns to his roots in a new and exciting book of poetry about his childhood in Guadalupe, New Mexcio, originally called Ojo del Padre, presumably in honor of a priest who discovered a still-bubbling spring in the area. The village of Guadalupe is no more, but Garcia's vibrant word pictures transport us to a time and place of true community and existence.

Written first in Spanish, then translated to English, these poems paint his young life and the lives of his family members and neighbors in west central New Mexico in the mid-twentieth century. Garcia's perceptions of a wider world and all it includes, but still anchored in the routines of home and play and work, were imparted by his mother, who never attended a day of school in her life.

If I had a choice to repeat any previous period of my life, it would be my childhood in the Rio Puerco Valley; it was unfettered, replete with love and happiness but never immune to the trials and tribulations that people faced. Since reliving one's past is not an option, offering a poetic vision of my upbringing in rural New Mexico was the next best thing.--from the Introduction