GARCÍA, LUCIANO (?-?). Luciano García, Spanish commander in Texas, had been sent to the area by Joaquín de Arredondo^qv after the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition^qv to reorganize the presidial company at La Bahía and to bring it to its full complement as specified in the Regulations of 1772. García was appointed ad interim governor of Texas on June 16, 1823, and assumed his duties on July 8. He served in that capacity until October 12, 1823, at which time he released his civil duties to become commandant general of the Province of Texas. In 1824 he was appointed political chief of the province and, as such, was friendly to the interests of Stephen F. Austin's^qv colony, helping it in every way he could. On July 17, 1823, García completed the governing system for the colony by appointing the Baron de Bastrop^qv as commissioner to extend land titles. Also during his administration as political chief García called the first elections in 1823 for the Texas representatives to the constituent Congress of Mexico. After retiring from the political scene in Bexar sometime in 1826 and receiving a discharge as lieutenant colonel of the cavalry of Nuevo Santander, in which he had been active. García devoted himself to stock raising.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Vito Alessio Robles, Coahuila y Texas en la época colonial (Mexico City: Editorial Cultura, 1938; 2d ed., Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa, 1978). Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., Washington: GPO, 1924-28). Bexar Archives, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.