Adriana M. Garcia

Congratulations Adriana winner of the 2024 Pura Belpré Illustration Honor for REMEMBERING!

Adriana M Garcia, an award-winning artist, muralist, scenic designer, was born and raised on the west-side of San Antonio, Texas. Her debut picture book, All Around Us by Xelena González (Cinco Puntos Press), was awarded the 2018 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor, American Indian Youth Literature Award Picture Book Honor, ALA Notable Children’s Book, Tomás Rivera Mexican American Picture Book Award, and Texas Institute of Letters Literary Award for Best Picture Book. The companion picture book, Where Wonder Grows by Xelena González (Lee & Low/Cinco Puntos Press), received the 2023 Pura Belpré Illustrator Medal. Remembering by Xelena González (Atheneum/S&S), was named a 2024 Pura Belpré Illustration Honor and Ezra Jack Keats Award finalist. Adriana is also the illustrator of El cuarto turquesa/The Turquoise Room by Monica Brown (Lee & Low) and forthcoming On a Girl Becoming by Joy Harjo (Norton, 2025).

Garcia is known for her 117-foot mural entitled “De Todos Caminos Somos Todos Uno” for the San Pedro Creek project in San Antonio. In collaboration with area nonprofit organizations, Garcia has created many community murals including SOMArts in California, Northwest Vista College, South West Workers Union, Bill Haus Arts, San Antonio Cultural Arts Center, and Casa de la Cultura in Del Rio, Texas. In all of her artwork and murals, Adriana honors our ancestors, speaks to access to education and literature for all, and gives voice to mental health, immigration, and women’s rights. Adriana has exhibited her artwork locally and nationally and has been invited to present at conferences, schools and museums including American Library Association (ALA), National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS), and the McNay Art Museum. She has enjoyed working as an arts administrator and an art/design instructor for both youth and adult learners. To see more of Adriana’s work, visit her at  www.adrianamgarcia.com and www.allaroundus.info

Adriana notes, “I create as a way to document the lives, as a way to honor a person’s existence and make visible the marks they have imprinted upon me and the environment — a legacy left as well as those still to come. I believe in the social importance of art. It is the most accessible way to protest, love, heal, and learn.”