Patrick Garcia: Honorary Mayor, lifelong ambassador

Patrick Garcia, a fifth-generation second cousin to General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, stepped into his own little piece of Sonoma’s history last month when he was named the city’s 2016 Alcalde – the Honorary Mayor of Sonoma.

Thus, after a lifetime spent singing the praises of the town he loves, the City of Sonoma is sending its appreciation back Garcia’s way.

Garcia prides himself on reaching out to help two communities in Sonoma, the Spanish speaking population that lives in the Valley and the tourists who are here just briefly.

He can be found most days sitting out front at the Basque Boulangerie on the Plaza, where he engages in conversations with visitors, sharing the history of Sonoma and offering suggestions on what restaurants and wineries to visit.

Several nights a week, especially during warmer weather, he hangs out at night at the La Bamba taco truck in the Springs, where he says he speaks to Latinos in Spanish, offering his advice, encouraging them to learn English and to take the necessary steps to become American citizens. He tells them about La Luz, and lets them know it’s possible to get help.

“I like being able to reach out and talk to people, especially Hispanics that need to meld into the general population,” Garcia said. “I talk to tourists every day about the history of Sonoma, and I have a binder of information that I share with them.” In 2013 Garcia earned a Certified Tourism Ambassador designation from the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau.

He has also served on the board of the Sonoma/Petaluma State Historic Parks Association since 2000, and is chairman of the Patzcuaro committee of the Sonoma Sister Cities Association.

Garcia, who was born and raised in Cupertino and is of Mexican descent, has a deep love for Mexico and its culture. After serving in the U.S. Army, where he was a land surveyor in Germany and Yugoslavia, he studied for two years at the University of the Americas in Mexico City on the G.I. Bill. While there he perfected his Spanish and traveled throughout the country. As a young man he also took Dale Carnegie classes, had an art gallery in Palo Alto and returned to Europe for a while, where he worked as an art restorer and English language tutor in Germany and Italy, where he also learned to speak German and Italian (and even saw the Beatles perform at Tivoli Gardens!). Returning to America he started studying psychology at De Anza Community College, eventually transferring to and receiving a B.A. from Sonoma State University in 1971.

While at Sonoma State he started the first tutoring/mentoring program “for children of farm workers and other children with mental and social needs,” Garcia said in a letter to the city manager expressing his interest in becoming the Alcalde.

Every year since 1975, the City Council selects a citizen who is given the honorary title of Alcalde, which is the Spanish word for mayor. Nominations are made by community members, and an Alcalde selection committee considers such qualities as community service, leadership in a nonprofit, spearheading a community project, moral and ethical values and “behind the scenes good deeds.” The council makes its decison in December, and this year it is Garcia who received the ceremonial Alcalde cane.

“Patrick is a fifth generation descendent of General Vallejo and his time has come,” Mayor Laurie Gallian said. “He really is an ambassador for the City of Sonoma, making tourists feel welcome. Both in the past and currently he’s had nothing more in mind than making people comfortable in Sonoma. And he made many contributions in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, with fair equity housing and other efforts.”

Garcia said that in 1979 he wrote a proposal to establish the first low-income “sweat labor” housing project in Sonoma Valley that was funded and built two years later. And that in 1976 he started the first Spanish-speaking Catholic Mass at St. Francis Solano Church. Additionally, he says he set up the Guadalupana church association, which helped bring a Spanish-speaking priest to the parish.

“During the 1980s and 1990s, I helped a lot of Spanish speaking families with many social and legal issues plus helping them find work, generally in the Sonoma Valley,” Garcia said in his letter.

Many Valley residents who travel remember Garcia as the friendly, chatty driver of the Sonoma Airporter vans, which he drove for 14 years until the business closed in 2009. He always had a tale, and it was always about Sonoma, whether touting local olive oil or speaking favorably about local schools.

Garcia and his wife Amalia moved to Sonoma in 1974 and raised their family here, Diego, 39, Adain, 36, and Alexander, 31. For a while he was the manager at Vineyard Jewelers, and also worked as human resources manager at the former Skylark Nursery on Highway 12. He is now separated from his wife and has lived alone for the past 14 years in City of Sonoma senior housing.

“I love it,” he said about being chosen Alcalde. His plans for his year include working with Mayor Gallian to promote local history. He hopes to put together an educational program on the history of Sonoma, and to make historical presentations to community groups.

Asked what he hopes to accomplish this year he said, “I want to make sure that we have equality. I want to help meld the Hispanic community into our general population.”

At 75, Garcia has lived for more than 40 years in the Sonoma he has loved since the day he arrived. Home truly is where his heart is, and he has done his best to help make the Valley a welcoming place for all who live and visit here.

An Alcalde reception for Garcia set for Friday, Feb. 5 at Vintage House has been postponed. City officials will announce when a new reception date has been set.