MCM Books News

by Alfredo E. Cardenas On May 25, thirty-two years to the day from its first observance, America’s Last Patrol Ranch will celebrate Memorial Day at its headquarters in Duval County.  MCM Books’ author Ovidio Garcia will attend and share with his fellow Vietnam Veterans his experiences as presented in his book My War, My Art , published earlier this year. As publisher of the Duval County Picture in 1986, I had the privilege of chronicling the founding of the Last Patrol Ranch by a group of Vietnam Veterans from San Diego. The purpose of the ranch was then, as it is now, to keep a focus on their comrades, classified  POW/MIA. In addition, it was then, as it is now, a place for “brotherhood.” As I described it in 1986, it was a place for many who “can’t, won’t and don’t forget the experience. It is welded into their psyche. It was beaten, burned, and shot into their young minds and it won’t leave it.” Ovidio Garcia In My War, My Art , Garcia presents his experiences in Vietnam ...

TEXANA READS: Vietnam veteran combines stories, art to convey horrific experience Ovidio Garcia saw the enemy up close. Two tours of Vietnam – most of the time in combat – solidified his images of war. The memories are hard-wired into his brain. They are with him for the rest of his life.

Michigan War Studies Review – book reviews, literature surveys, original essays, and commentary in the field of military studies Review by Thomas G. Palaima, The University of Texas-Austin Ovidio Garcia tells us in his introduction that, during his two tours as an airborne infantryman in Vietnam (1966-67, 1971-72), he saw only one army photographer “and he was killed on his second day of insertion into his unit” and that personal cameras were not allowed because of “intelligence factors” (x).

Memories in Green: A mind’s fifty-year journey from drafted to PTSD, Reflections from Viet Nam by Beto Conde Review by Ben Figueroa The Vietnam War was unique in that the birth of PTSD brought back by countless veterans has haunted veterans of foreign wars before and since Vietnam, but we did not know it to be a lifelong demon. In addition, Agent Orange devastated those veterans who survived the Vietnam War and came back only to be turned away and questioned by the Veteran’s Administration that the dangerous toxin used to kill the jungle brush did not affect our veterans who were also sprayed with it.   Ben Figueroa Beto Conde from San Benito, Texas, has given us a very real glimpse of what it was for a soldier fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. His book is exemplary of the many veterans who have suffered the demons of PTSD and Agent Orange. It is a vivid and truthful reminder that freedom isn’t free, our veterans who died in the war and came back to suffer a lifetime fought for o...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Friendly fire. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator border_width=”2″ css=”.vc_custom_1549390341395{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] On Tuesday, February 19, Ovidio Garcia, author and Vietnam veteran, will make a presentation about his book  My War, My Art  and his war experiences to a class at the University of Texas at Austin. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”white” border_width=”4″][vc_text_separator title=”” color=”white” border_width=”4″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Thomas G Palaima, Ph.D., Robert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor invited Garcia to come in and discuss his images, words, and experiences and the process of painting and writing his book with students in Palaima’s Plan II Honors Program junior seminar...

Even now, fifty years after his return from Vietnam, Ovidio Garcia still sees danger when he encounters a treeline at the end of a field. Fifty years ago the United States was in the midst of cataclysmic social turmoil. In a short period of five years, assassins gunned down three of its most prominent leaders; President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Martin Luther King in Memphis, and Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles. Hundreds of thousands of young people were in the streets protesting discrimination, politics and “the War in Vietnam!” Meanwhile, clear across the other side of the world, in a place most people could not find on the map, tens of thousands of other young men and women were engaged in a life and death struggle in the jungles of a place called South Vietnam, to distinguish it from its enemy North Vietnam. Presumably, the Vietnamese knew why they were fighting, but most of the young Americans called to arms in this faraway place had no idea. They were following orders. some volu...

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MCM Books author Ricardo D. Palacios, 75, passed away on Saturday, Dec. 15, at his home. On Sept. 5, he suffered an arrhythmia caused by plaque in an artery, but was making a remarkable recovery and had returned home to his ranch in Encinal. Unfortunately, he experienced a second heart attack from which he was unable to recover. “We will miss Ricardo greatly, MCM Books publisher Alfredo E. Cardenas said. “We are under contract to deliver his second novel with us and will work with his family to publish it posthumously.” Palacios was anxious to get back to work on final edits to the novel, tentatively entitled Judgement Reversed . The story is about a land dispute, a familiar subject to many in south Texas. “I’m home. Glad to be here for sure,” Palacios texted Cardenas in mid-November after moving back home from spending two months in a series of Austin medical and rehabilitation facilities. He assured the publisher he was ready to work on the final edits. A month later he succumbed to ...

MCM Books author Ricardo D. Palacios suffered an arrhythmia caused by plaque in an artery on Wednesday, Sept. 5, after he completed a presentation at the Bullock Texas History Museum in Austin. Palacios is recovering at an Austin hospital. Palacios is the author of Chon, The Story of a WWII Japanese Spy Who Became a South Texas Vaquero . His presentation at the Bullock, however, involved another of his books, Tio Cowboy: Juan Salinas, Rodeo Roper, and Horseman . Some 30 people turned out to hear Palacios speak about the experiences of his uncle Juan Salinas, a nationally recognized roper and horseman during the 1940s. The audience was very engaged in Palacios’ presentation, asking questions and exchanging observations. After the talk, Palacios remained to speak one-on-one with the audience participants and to sign books purchased at the museum’s bookstore. During this time Palacios began to exhibit symptoms suggesting something was not right. As he left the event, he collapsed in the m...

In his foreword to Abel Rubio’s book Stolen Heritage, A Mexican-American’s Rediscovery of His Family’s Lost Land Grant , Thomas H. Kreneck who now serves as  Associate Library Director for Special Collections and Archives at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi writes: “In my work as a public historian…I have encountered at least 200 laymen who claimed they were ‘writing books’ about the history of their families. None of the people, I should add, ever completed their projects; the difficulty of such a task always outstripped their ability and enthusiasm.” That is unfortunate. If anyone out there is having trouble completing their family history take hope from Rubio’s formidable achievement. Rubio recognizes in his introduction that: “This narrative is not a standard history of Texas because it was never intended as such. But how can we write about an old-time Texas frontier family without involving the entire region and its society?” He is right on point with this observat...

Believe it or not, some people have written a novel or nonfiction book and have been unable to find a publisher. They dejectedly put away their manuscript in a file drawer or a box in their closet or garage and forgot about the dreams they once had of being published. Such was the case for Alfredo E. Cardenas and Ricardo D. Palacios, both now published authors with MCM Books. In 2015, Cardenas decided to do something about his novel Balo’s War , which he had written ten years earlier. He founded his own publishing house. He dusted off his manuscript, and with the help of his family, prepared it for publishing. He could do that because he had experience in publishing newspapers and magazines. He realized, however, that other authors did not have that experience, so he set up MCM Books to help them. One such author is Ricardo D. Palacios, a practicing attorney in Laredo, who had in his files a couple of manuscripts written as long as thirty years before. With MCM Books’ help, earlier thi...

“I have always been fascinated with books; how they transport you into another world and lure you in their stories,” MCM’s summer intern Darcy Ramirez said about spending her summer learning the publishing business as a Media Intern for MCM Books. Darcy is a senior at Texas A&M University in Kingsville with a double major in English and Communications with a specialty in Journalism. In the Fall she will resume her position as editor-in-chief of The South Texan the student newspaper. She also serves as a tutor in the Educational Opportunity Center. This is not Darcy’s first internship. She gained valuable experience last summer with the U.S. Department of Education, TRIO Program as a Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations & Media Intern. The experience in that internship as well as here at MCM Books should prove valuable in her career aspirations in the publishing world. “Ever since I started interning at MCM Books I have become accustomed to editing drafts, helping with...

Seminar talks features George Parr, The Freedom Party and political climate of Jim Wells and Duval counties. The Jim Wells County Historical Commission invites the public to a free history seminar centered on the political atmosphere of Jim Wells and Duval counties from the 1940s and 1950s.”It’s a collage of incredible issues that were happening in that era and George Parr was in the middle of it,” said Antonio “Tony” Bill, JWC Historical Commission co-chair.Bill will be presenting a paper on the Texas Ranger and George Parr confrontation of January 1954.Alfredo Cardenas,

Manuel Andres “Andy” Soto, author of Life in a South Texas Colonia presented his book and artwork to students at Coastal Bend College in Beeville today, May 3. Some of the students were from Kennedy, Runge, and other nearby communities, which are very familiar with the subject of his book.

Life, Love, and Marriage in a Texas Colonia | Bullock Texas State History Museum As a boy, I remember waking up to the wonderful aroma of cafecito and homemade flour tortillas cooking for breakfast. Hearing my mami and papi talking softly and lovingly to each other was common. Often the conversation was interrupted by my mother’s playful laughter after my dad had told her a funny story about their children, or work, or some of the locals.

We have begun shipping pre-orders for Chon. If you haven’t placed your order you can do so here!

The release of Chon: The Story of a WWII Japanese Spy Who Became a South Texas Vaquero is almost here. We are still planning to ship pre-ordered copies on or about March 15. If you haven’t ordered your copy do so now here .

March marks the third anniversary of MCM Books’ first book publication. Since the release of Balo’s War , MCM Books has published two other books and is getting ready to release its fourth. In March, the publishing house that focuses on South Texas will release Chon: The Story of a WWII Japanese Spy Who Became a South Texas Vaquero . Ever since men entered what would eventually become known as the Americas, people from the orient, including Japan, were among them. They crossed the Bering Strait and made their way down to the Magellan Strait. No doubt some stayed in South Texas. It is not surprising then, that many natives of the area possess Oriental facial features. It is certainly plausible that a Japanese spy could have made his way into the United States by blending into the South Texas landscape.