Pedro Pan | An Evening with Mario García

🎟 This event is FREE and open to the public, and books will be available for purchase the night of the event! An RSVP grants general entry, but seating is not guaranteed, so please try to show up early. Please RSVP only if you intend to join us. Can't make the event? Buy your copy here.

About The Book

At age fourteen, Mario García arrived alone in the United States as part of Operation Pedro Pan, the historic program that brought more than 14,000 Cuban children to America during the early years of Castro's revolution. Through a collection of deeply personal stories filled with humor, heartbreak, and hope,

García traces his journey from refugee teenager to internationally recognized media consultant, author, teacher, husband, father, and grandfather. Along the way, he explores the lessons of exile, identity, resilience, gratitude, and belonging.

Pedro Pan: Learning to Dance - The Long Road to Becoming American is an inspiring memoir about adaptation, perseverance, and discovering that home is not only where you come from, but also what you build.

About The Moderator

Dr. Mario R. García is Senior Adviser on News Design and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the CEO and Founder of García Media, a global consulting firm specializing in newsroom transformation, design strategy, and mobile-first storytelling.

Recognized worldwide as one of the premier media designers, Dr. García has led more than 750+ redesign and innovation projects across 122 countries. His clients include The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, South China Morning Post, Aftenposten, Handelsblatt, and many other major news organizations. Beyond journalism, his corporate work spans collaborations with Facebook, Walmart, the United Nations, Hapag Lloyd, and JetBlue Airways.His current projects include Handelsblatt and Tagesspiegel (Germany), and training workshops for a number of media outlets including The Times of London and the Singapore Straits Times, and South Africa’s Media 24 Group.

Dr. García joined Columbia in 2013 as the Hearst Digital Media Professor in Residence, guiding journalists worldwide on how to tell stories effectively on mobile platforms and emerging digital channels. He also founded the Graphics & Design Program at the Poynter Institute, has served on its Foundation Board, and has been deeply involved in Poynter’s landmark EyeTrack Research series.

The author of 17 books, Dr. García’s influential titles include the acclaimed trilogy The Story: Transformation · Storytelling · Design, AI: The Next Revolution in Content Creation, and his newest release, Consulting with Heart (2025) — a reflection on creativity, empathy, and leadership in the age of artificial intelligence.

His next two books are, Pedro Pan: Learning to Dance—The Long Road to Becoming American (Greenleaf, 2026) and The Virtuoso Machine: Keeping Humanity at the Controls of AI will be published by Forbes Books in early 2027.

His lifetime achievements have been recognized with the Society for News Design’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the University of Missouri Medal of Honor in Journalism, and inclusion among People Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics.”

Follow his work at garciamedia.com and TheMarioBlog, and explore all of his books on Amazon.