Chaucer’s Books will host Mario T. García for a book talk and signing of “Rupert García: The Making of an American Artist — A Testimonio,” 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 3321 State St., Santa Barbara.

The athor is a distinguished professor of Chicano studies and history at UC Santa Barbara.

García’s book is the first biography of the renowned American Chicano visual artist and activist Rupert García, drawing on 50 hours of interviews conducted over three decades, and accompanied by 80 images.

The in-depth oral history examines García’s life and work, tracing his evolution as an artist and the political upheavals that shaped his life and worldview. 

Mario García’s testimonio places Rupert García’s art in historical perspective, from his beginnings as a working-class Mexican American from California’s Central Valley; coming of age in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam war; involvement in the antiwar movement during the San Francisco State student strike in 1968-69; to his participation in the Chicano Movement and beyond.

Influenced by history and politics, García’s works of art represent a changing world through the eyes of an artist, speaking to issues of poverty, racism, capitalism, war, and the role of the artist in society.

“His art — from revolutionary silkscreen posters to monumental pastels to portraits of political icons like Frida Kahlo, Che Guevara, and Dolores Huerta — serves to critique history and reassess it. It is work that will endure for generations to come,” Chaucer’s said.

García has published more than 20 books, including “Blowout!: Sal Castro and the Chicano Struggle for Educational Justice: and “The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America.”