FabiÃ¡n GarcÃa Collection

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Fabián García
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''Being a good shepherd, you have made the desert to blossom as the rose, creating sustenance for your flocks alike in the fertile valleys and on the desert slopes. You have added vigor and palatability to the life-giving mais [corn], chile, frijoles [beans], and uvas [grapes]; and made the satisfaction of hunger on the part of your ovejas [sheep] an occasion of festivity and lasting good will.'' -letter from B. Youngblood

A friend once told García, ''Living in the midst of natural loveliness and grandeur, you have acquired a depth of thought and aspiration which New Mexican society could ill do without.''

Fabián García with members of the first class at NMCA&MA, 1890. Later in life García wrote: ''You go to school to train your mind and hand so that you can use them in your life's work and become leaders in whatever vocation you choose. We look to the educated young men of today as the leaders in the coming activities.''

García with classmates at Cornell University, February 1900. From 1899-1900 García enrolled in postgraduate work at Cornell University in New York. Animal Industry, Dairy Husbandry, Evolution of Cultured Plants, Literature of Horticulture, and Propagation of Plants were a few of the courses he studied there.

Cornell University, 1900. García wrote, ''The supreme object of education is to raise man to his highest power, to develop him along the lines of his noblest nature so that he will be not only keen, sagacious and shrewd but broadminded, evenly and sympathetically balanced, tolerant, sweet, and charitable.''

Drawings made by García during his experimentation to produce the first commercially viable chiles in the Mesilla Valley.

''The Station had grown into a powerful influence in the rising importance of the agricultural and livestock industries. It's growth reflected the close touch one man has kept on the pulse of New Mexico's needs. The experiments carried on in this state proved valuable not only to New Mexico farmers but to their neighbors also.''

García is seated fourth from left, front row in this NMCA&MA faculty portrait. In an article about the influence and prominence of the college's Agricultural Experiment Station, Margaret Page Hood wrote, ''Dr. García, who has been director and horticulturalist since 1914... is one of the most modest men in science.''

García works in the field with one of his botany classes, NMCA&MA, ca. 1905.

García meets with Mexican government officials in 1930. García said that personal cultural development should include, ''an active interest in the doings of the world at large, entailing some acquaintance with men and women of note in other spheres of life;''

Official Opening of the Southwestern Arboretum. Superior, Arizona - April 6, 1929. García is in the center on the back row.

''Your ears must have burned this morning when we were all talking about you - Reuben, Carlos, Joe and Peggy just raved about you and how nice you were and I told them to wake up, you had always been that way to all of us....
Love to our best Uncle from, Dick.'' -excerpt of letter written by Richard Amador.

García hides diffidently with friends and family in front of the Amador Hotel. His relationship with Las Cruces' influential Amador Family ran deep. He married Julieta Amador in 1907 and even after she died in 1920 his ties to the family remained strong.

García brunches with Mexican officials at the restaurant Las Flores, in Xochimilco, Mexico in a picture dated July 20, 1930. It was said that he was a charming dinner guest, often telling entertaining stories of the Mesilla Valley and its history.

In a valentine from Mr. A.J. Cigar was a poem for García:
He's director of the Station
And, we've heard, he can direct,
So he's won our hearty admiration,
And also our respect.

''...in my estimation you were always a perfect gentleman and kind to all alike. How well I remember the men who came into our offices. It mattered not-whether the high or lowly they were all treated with the same courtesy. To me that has meant a lot.'' Ellen Smith, in a letter to Fabián García dated- June 14, 1948.

In a May 4, 1943 letter García's brother-in-law J.E. Amador wrote, '' Well, I conclude, congratulating you again and wishing you more honors as deserved by persons such as yourself, of which there are few in the world (perfect in everything.)''

Fabián García had determination. In a story he used to tell he mentioned the initiation of the farmers' institutes and how he and a colleague, determined to get their message across, gave an entire speech ''full blast and down to the last syllable'' to a one man audience in an auditorium. Approaching the man and inquiring about his farm the man replied, ''Oh I ain't no farmer, I'm the janitor here.''

''He is not well educated who is not morally better, more conscientious, and of greater force in right living. It is as much a part of true education to develop appreciation and love of all forms of beauty and goodness wherever found...To this day I own Niagra Falls, because the enjoyment which the sight produced upon me is mine and shall continue in my possession as long as I live.''

''For me there is no person in this country that I admire and truly believe is the greatest man of our day like you my much beloved friend. [I feel] honored because we have one of our own blood that has been able to rise to such a prominent position. Oh that many others will follow in your footsteps...But that is impossible, because there is only one Fabián García!'' Fabiola- May 9, 1943.

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