MCM Books News

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...