Eugenio Garcia does not let being an immigrant define him. In fact, he is so much more than somebody who was born in a foreign country. A Spanish teacher with two adult children who both attended Williston, Garcia makes a mark not only on the Williston campus, but in local politics.

Garcia has been teaching at Williston for 23 years, and coaches soccer and basketball. Born in Granada, Spain, he grew up speaking Spanish and met his wife in his home city in 1985. They married in 1989, and moved to the United States in 1991 after he finished his mandatory military service. He became a United States citizen in 2001.

Garcia immigrated to the United States because his wife, originally from the United States, wanted to be closer to her family, and they believed that there would be more opportunities.

“It was a complicated and drawn out experience to get a fiancé visa to come here and have our wedding ceremony,” Garcia said, “In fact, we had to postpone our wedding for two weeks so I could attend.

Garcia does think he changed since he came to America. “One of my biggest issues that I needed to overcome was the language. I had never studied English in Spain before,” Garcia added, “Also, I came from one country where 95% of the people were the same in race and religion, so I learned a lot about diversity in this country.”

Considering the outcome of this year’s presidential election, Garcia thinks that being a young immigrant wishing to come to the United States will be harder. “I think that the concept of immigration has become more negative lately,” he said.

Even though Garcia never thought that he would one day end up living in the United States, he is incredibly happy and comfortable living and working at Williston.

“I was lucky to be able to live in a place like the Williston community where we value people from different cultures and ethnicities,” Garcia said, “I know that some immigrants are not that lucky and they go through a lot of negative experiences.”

Garcia and his wife were very involved in the presidential election and local politics, and he hopes that more Williston students become involved and start thinking about their futures.

“People need to understand that we are a nation of immigrants,” Garcia told The Willistonian, “Everyone in this country who is not a Native American has been an immigrant or their ancestors were immigrants during some part of the history of this country. Immigrants bring a lot to the States. Diversity is one of the greatest assets that a society can have.”