Xavier Garza

Born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, author and lucha libre aficionado Xavier Garza is a prolific and enthusiastic author, artist, and storyteller whose work focuses primarily on his experiences growing up in the small border town of Rio Grande City and is a lively documentation of the dreams, superstitions, and heroes in the bigger-than-life world of South Texas. Garza has exhibited his art and performed his stories in venues throughout Texas, Arizona and the state of Washington. He has authored and illustrated fourteen books, and has received such prestigious awards as the Americas Honor Book Award in 2005, the Tejas Star Book Award three times from 2007-2010 and the Pura Belpre Honor Book award in 2012. In 2014 he was awarded both the NAACS Tejas Young Adult Book Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Children's Book Award. In 2019 Xavier Garza will be inducted into the prestigious Texas Institute of Letters. Garza lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife Irma and their teen son Vincent.