CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – University of New Mexico professor Michelle Hall Kells will discuss her biography of civil rights leader Héctor P. García during an opening reception for the University’s Clearinghouse for Mexican-American Research Thursday, Oct. 12 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Bay Hall foyer.

Kells, author of “Héctor P. García: Everyday Rhetoric and Mexican American Civil Rights,” will examine how the Mexican immigrant turned activist, achieved unprecedented influence within the U.S. political system and effectively operated between Anglo and Mexican-American socio-political structures to achieve civil rights reform in mid-20th century America. The reception and lecture are free and open to the public.

“Garcia was a decorated World War II veteran who successfully forced a discourse that crossed geographic, political, and cultural borders,” said Kells.

Working with both the poor and prominent national figures such as John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Garcia publicly was able to cross class, regional, and racial lines to reveal the plight of Mexican-Americans, she said.

The recently-established Clearinghouse for Mexican-American Research is a campus organization dedicated to generating external funding for faculty and graduate student research. Co-directors Anthony Quiroz and JoAnn Canales are working to provide scholarship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and to promote interaction between the University and the broader community.

Corpus Christi is less than three hours from Mexico at an international crossroads that includes the nation’s sixth largest sea port. According to Canales, because of its unique geographic location, the Coastal Bend is a living laboratory for conducting solution-oriented research on Mexican-American/Hispanic issues that can act as a model for other areas of the country as the Hispanic population continues to grow.