Not even a full 12 hours after the official election of Donald Trump, Sam Garcia, a 1L at Harvard Law, and his brother, Ricco, began plotting, researching, and sketching what would be their first joint book, “How a Goat Was Elected Mayor and the Political Spring That Followed.” The book’s purpose was to reveal the often untold or rarely-heard of stories behind upset elections — beginning with how a goat was legitimately elected mayor of the West Texas community of Lajitas.
Why did the Garcia brothers choose to start off with such a strange election? Sam Garcia was actually a goat herder for six years as a child in the Rio Grande Valley. His father, who was a defense attorney at the time, accepted anything as payment for his services, and one day he accepted a herd of goats and so began Sam’s stint as a goat herder. Sam went on to use his experience as a goat herder to write his first book, “How Goats Can Fight Poverty.”
The new book details the elections of pro wrestler-turned-Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, Donald Trump and Barack Obama; the story of how Mexico’s National Action Party (PAN) broke the 87-year-long grip of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) on the Mexican state of Tamaulipas; and many other topics and elections.
After its release on Feb. 22, the book debuted as a #1 bestseller on Amazon in both the Local U.S. Politics and Communication Policy categories. The book also claimed the #1 New Release spot in Local U.S. Politics. In fact, in all of the million(s) of titles that Amazon has “How a Goat Was Elected Mayor and the Political Spring That Followed” ranked in the top 3000 books for a time.
“My brother and I are happy that our book is being received well, and we hope that our book’s success has made the Rio Grande Valley community proud,” said Garcia.
WATCH Sam Garcia talks about “How Goats can Fight Poverty” at TEDxStEdwardsU in 2015.