Armando has been a dedicated writer for 35 years, as of 2024. Why 34 years? In 1989 president George Herbert Walker Bush and his administration sent troops to the Persian Gulf after Iraq had invaded Kuwait, and Bush ordered thousands of soldiers and military equipment  there. The saber rattling rhetoric inevitably led to war and loss of life to countless people—too many of them would be innocent civilians. Bush’s actions triggered a distant memory in Armando’s mind. Gilbert, a lifelong friend had been drafted into the Army and killed in Vietnam. Gilbert, and thousands of other young men were sent there after the Pentagon knew that the war was a lost cause.

​Deeply troubled, Armando sat and wrote Gilbert an impassioned letter that began, “Dear Gilbert, it’s been 20 years since you were killed in Vietnam…” The letter described the aftereffects of the war: thousands of refugees from Southeast Asia escaped, bringing only what they could carry, to the US. Thousands of Vietnam war veterans committed suicide or took to drug and alcohol abuse and living under bridges. In the piece, titled Vow to a Fallen Comrade, Armando promised Gilbert that he would oppose the war in his memory. The letter was published in the Sunday edition of The Press Democrat, a newspaper serving northern California.

​Seeing his name in print for the fist time gave him a psychological boost. His writings, prior to this, began as a hobby-like avocation in chronicling comical stories of growing up in a bilingual/bicultural household. His parents were born in Mexico and came to the US where they met and married. Armando, his identical twin brother, Fernando, and their five siblings, attended Catholic schools on their mother’s insistence. The two were natural born cutups who brought laughter to the household however the Garcia twins clowning was not appreciated by Sister Mary Consetta, their grammar school principal. Many of these experiences are found in their collaborate writing effort in a collection of short stories and reminisces titled, Bless Me Father for I Have Sinned.

​Armando’s marriage of 23 years came to an end in 1997, and he found himself living alone in a cottage located in a northern California forest. Having had been raised in a large and loud Mexican family, and raising children of his own, he found a life in solitude distastefully odd. And for a reason that he can’t explain, the muse of poetry came to him. With few exceptions he didn’t like poetry in high school or college. It was too esoteric to his ear. “A writer once said,” says Armando, “that you don’t choose poetry, poetry chooses you, and I am such a case.”

​A dedicated poet and friend of Armando’s read his poetry and encouraged him to print a chap book of 20, or so, poems. He did so and published 300 copies his first collection, Out of My Heart figuring that his mother would buy a copy, but to his astonishment, all copies sold. He published another 300 and they sold.

​Armando’s love of writing became a passion. His poetry and stories have been widely published and he was named as the Literary Laureate of Healdsburg, California for 2002-2003.