Manuel Garcia Muñoz

Born September 16, 1927 in Lone Pine, California, where his father, Refugio Munoz worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad; Manuel was around five (5) when the family took a vacation to Mexico. While there, his father noticed how inexpensive things were and decided not to return to California.

As a young man, he recalls “Bracero Program” recruiters coming around, trying to encourage him and his friends to sign up and work for the United States; but he was never interested; that is, until he met Carmen Campos.

After a formal request by his parents for Carmen’s hand in marriage was denied, Manuel decided to go to America. When he informed Carmen of his plans, she said, “take me with you!” They ran away in mid June 1947; but he quickly decided to do the right thing and returned her to nearby family.

Manuel and Carmen were married on July 14, 1947, upon her 21st birthday, and not too long thereafter; made their way to Ciudad Juarez, Chih., MX. Not long after this, his parents and siblings also followed. Manuel went onto California, leaving Carmen with his parents.

On May 09, 1948, Carmen, very pregnant with first child, arrived in Fresno, California. Now the family was together and the next day, May 10, 1948, Mary was born. For a short time, Manuel worked alongside with his Uncle Severiano Garcia at the Santa Fe Railroad.

Eighteen months later, Grace was born, November 07, 1949. By that time, Manuel was working with the local farmers doing all the tasks that go with grape harvesting. During his downtime, Manuel picked up the guitar. He really got into it, buying song books that had the chords and working really hard to learn how to play. About six (6) years after Grace, on February 09, 1956, Herbert joined the Munoz family, as the one and only boy.

In 1957, after spending a month, sitting daily at the Sun Maid Raisin Company’s employment office, with a packed lunch prepared by Carmen, he eventually was offered a job in Fresno and later was transferred to the new Kingsburg plant; working there until his retirement in 1985.

As his love for music grew, he made connections with other local musicians and started a duet with Henry Rosas, naming themselves “El Dueto Los Barranquenos” and quickly became very popular and in demand. During this period, Manuel tried his hand at composing songs. One song he dedicated to Fresno, “Ay Fresno Precioso”, was so popular that it became their first vinyl recording. Manuel went on to compose over 400 songs, including lyric and music, during his lifetime.

As time passed, his duet became a trio with the addition of Juan Rodriguez. As a trio, they became more in demand and found themselves performing at weddings, birthdays, community and political events and multiple performances at the Fresno Fair. During this period, they recorded a 2nd record. With the sudden death of Juan Rodriguez and later the departure of Henry Rosas, Manuel started another trio, “Trio Los Colimas.”

Through his musical connections, Manuel traveled to Mexico City to promote and have his music recorded by contracted artists. He sang one of his songs to well-known composer, Rafael Carrion, who then suggested, he should record his own songs. Manuel remembered how humbling and honored he felt to hear that such a famous composer would suggest that his voice and talent was sufficient to record his own music.

Manuel went on to record two (2) cassettes and one (1) CD with an international and well known record company, AMS. These recordings contained all his own compositions and sung by Manuel Munoz, himself. He was in the process of recording a 2nd CD, when he lost his beloved Carmen Munoz in 2012. They were only a month shy of their 65th wedding anniversary.

The loss of his wife, our mom, was hard on him. He kept busy with his gardening and replaying his music. Doing his gardening resulted in a fall that fractured his left leg and then a second fall broke his left wrist and hip. Although he appeared to heal well, he slowly stopped playing his guitar.

Though Dad could be difficult at times, his behavior started to change. He became more stubborn, more suspicious of others and had difficulty remembering. It was only a matter of time, when we ultimately realized and learned the true causes. At first we were in denial; then, it broke our hearts to see such a talented writer-composer not remember words to his own songs.

On December 18, 2019, dad left us to join his wife, mother and other siblings who have preceded him. Dad can finally sing that special song he wrote for his mom, Carmen Garcia, “Mananitas A Mi Madre” and sing again the special one he composed to his three granddaughters, Sofia E. Rios, Sonia E. McKnight and Rachel Munoz, “Las Tres Flores” and finally the one dedicated to his great-granddaughter, Skylin Esparza, “Una Estrella”

Manuel Munoz is preceded in death by:

his wife Carmen C. Munoz

his parents, Refugio & Carmen Munoz

all his brothers and sisters, including his half-brothers and half-sisters, except one surviving sister, Dolores “Lola” Aragonez of Las Vegas

Manuel is also survived by:

His daughters:

Mary Munoz (spouse Alfred Gonzales) of Clovis, CA

Grace Munoz-Rios of Porterville, CA

His son:

Herbert Munoz (spouse Helen Munoz) of Mauldin, South Carolina

His grandchildren:

Sofia E. Rios (spouse Angie Dominguez) of Fresno, CA

Sonia E. McKnight, of Porterville, CA

Rachel Munoz (spouse Dane Kelley) of Fountain Inn, South Carolina

Donna Dallas (spouse Michael Dallas) of Lake Land, Florida

Paul Munoz (spouse Brenda Rico) of La Puente, CA

His great-grandchildren:

Skylin Esparza

Lily Shea McKnight

Michael “Bubba” McKnight

Nicholas “Niko” Dallas

Christine Dallas

Brantley Michelle Kelley

Dane Kelley, II

Many cousins, nieces and nephews

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC, DAD…GRACIAS POR LA MUSICA, PAPA