Journalist
Essayist
Michelle García, an award-winning journalist and essayist, is working on a non-fiction book about borders to be published by Viking Books.
Ánima Sola, a work of non-fiction, explores the role of the border and its mythologies in the construction of U.S. identity, race relations and violence.
Coming Soon | Viking Books
A border is imagined as a fine line stretched across a distance, a boundary that defines the limits of a nation. A line in the sand. But the nation’s border is like a person’s life story: marking a genesis, told from East to West, locating and anchoring its people within the cosmos and life’s senseless chaos, satisfying a basic need of humanity shared by societies across eons and every society for eons.
- Michelle García
PUBLISHED WORK
Essays, Reports, and Opinion Pieces
The Ugly History at the Root of the Border Standoff | New York Times | March 1, 2024
Opinion piece from the March 3rd (2024) edition of the NYT Sunday Review.
Rewriting the West (guest editor series) | Guernica Magazine | February 19, 2019
Michelle was guest editor for a series, Rewriting the West, that reconsidered the origin stories and mythologies of Los Angeles, Texas, Arizona, the Alamo, and family. Death of a Dream, by García, is part of the series. Art by Jia Sung
Border Theater (three-part series) | The Baffler | July 2 – November 2, 2018
Part I: The Border and the American Imagination | July 2, 2018.
Part II: Border Theater | September 14, 2018.
Part III: Beto at the Border | November 2, 2018.
Post about the three-part series from 2019.
Art by Jason Arias
PUBLIC APPEARANCES
Brian Lehrer Show / WNYC
June 8, 2022. Michelle and Monica Muñoz Martinez talk about the border security apparatus at Uvalde, and the history of violence and discrimination at the South Texas and Mexican border.
Beyond Borders: Life in the Middle Space
A talk at Brown University. Michelle discusses her journey into the world of “border security” where she witnessed the construction of the Border Wall and the destruction from the “drug war.” Tuesday, January 28, 2020. Petteruti Lounge, Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, 75 Waterman St.
Longform Podcast
Michelle discusses most of her career on Longform Podcast. August, 2019
AUDIO VISUAL WORK
Documentary Film and Public Radio Reports
Against Mexico: The Making of Heroes and Enemies | 12 minutes | 2014
They stare at each other down the barrel of their rifles, Mexican vs. white, and fire in the name of History. Each year dozens of men suit up in the uniforms of Texian rebels and Mexican soldados, pitch tents and recreate the Tejas of 175 years ago in the name of remembering and celebrating the legendary uprising against Mexico.
Against Mexico: The Making of Heroes and Enemies, a short documentary, illustrates how myths and history of wars and battles informs perceptions about ‘heroes’ and ‘enemies’ and how the echoes of history can be heard in current debates about who is entitled to claim the mantle of ‘American.’
Michelle García 