Christian G. Garcia
Christian was born in Whittier, California in July of 1979 to a humble and hardworking couple. Along with his two sisters, they grew up in a house where love and faith where at the forefront. At 10yrs old, his family moved to West Covina where they would remain throughout Christian’s high school and middle school years.
Right after graduating high school at 17, Christian moved out of his parents house and moved up the San Bernardino Mountains to work in a commercial kitchen at a family camp in Forest Falls. 4am wake up calls led to working with a team to prep breakfast for 500 plus campers just in time to start preparing lunch. Upon returning in the fall, Christian chose to attend college close to home rather than pursue his acquired art scholarship to Westmont University. He split his time between Citrus College and Chaffey College before transferring to Cal State University Fullerton and receiving his bachelor’s degree in History. During his time at CSUF, Christian studied Civil War history under the renown Lincoln scholar Ronald Reitveld, who’s childhood photo is on display in the Lincoln Library. Although Christian grew up in a Christian home, his college studies included courses on Islam, Hinduism and Judaism from experts in each of these fields. This broad knowledge of the various faiths and the history behind them developed inside of Christian a love and compassion for the citizens of the world.
Upon graduating in 2001, Christian accepted a job teaching at Western Christian High School. At the same time, Christian’s involvement with his local church expanded to a community outreach to at-risk youth. This included many children and teens from broken homes, gang controlled neighborhoods, and young members of the LBGTQIA+ community who had not experienced the love and acceptance they deserved. In 2006 the community of volunteers working with community decided to get involved with the global community and they created a branch of their existing 501.3c called La Red, Spanish for “the network.” The goal was to partner with other small locally run philanthropic organizations around the world. Over the next 5 years Christian would organize, train and lead teams to scout and serve some of these groups that including working in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil and Kolkata, India.
Along with his experience in classroom teaching, these trips gave him opportunities to speak in front of large crowds and further developed his skill of public speaking. This ability along with his song writing and performing provided many invitations to speak at conferences and special events locally and internationally. In 2011 Christian proposed to his long time friend Jennifer and they begin to make plans for their future family. Christian had been working in Pasadena part time and Jennifer had been a teacher in the Corona, Norco school district, but after much time and consideration they choose to plant their roots in Jennifer’s lifelong hometown of Ontario, California. As they drove around the city they saw the blending of rich and poor they had experienced around the world, but also saw the potential for something big. On February 11, 2012 they got married in neighboring Rancho Cucamonga’s Hidden Oaks and upon returning from their honeymoon, they moved into their newly purchased home. A modest but lovely abode off Grove street. A year later their first child would arrive and they would name him Luke. Their lives would change forever (especially when a year later their second child Lincoln arrived) but they continued to keep travel as a part of their family culture, and instead decided to visit successful booming young cities around our own North America. The years that would follow would see them visit Portland, Austin, Waco, Denver, Maui, Seattle, Vancouver, San Deigo, San Francisco, Joshua Tree and Santa Barbara. Even though these short visits were prioritized around celebration, Christian and Jennifer always travel with keen eyes of observation, getting to know locals and seeing what actually leads to growth and attraction. They saw that clean cities with welcoming communities and bustling entrepreneurial endeavors tended to attract like minded individuals. Every time they came home they took a little of what they saw with them, and dreamed of seeing some of that same energy manifest in their own beloved city of Ontario.
In 2017 Christian and Jennifer bought a 1972 VW Bus and sketched out restoration plans and a vision for a photo booth rental business serving the greater Southern California area. What became California Booth Bus blossomed quickly with just under 40 special events taking place that first year. It was also during these first years that Christian experienced what it was like in Ontario starting a business for the first time. Having previously worked with a non-profit and a local architect to try and get a Conditional Use Permit for a building downtown, Christian experienced from different angles, that Ontario is an incredible place for existing businesses, but there were no training-wheels or help for those trying to get started for the first time with not much more than a good idea, a solid work ethic and start up funds. After meeting with the Small Business Development Center (a wonderful federal organization that helps new business and happens to have a location in downtown Ontario) and applying for permits in other cities, the business continued to blossom.
In 2020, coincidentally just before the Pandemic began, Christian and Jennifer decided to sell the business as an entire entity in order to eliminate all debt and be able to spend more time with their now school-aged kids. Although Jennifer still teaches Transitional Kinder in the Corona Norco district, Christian has now freed up his schedule in order to serve his city and work on special projects full time. Most recently he served on the committee for developing a collection plan at the Ontario Museum of History and Art, and volunteered with the Point in Time Count working with Ontario PD to help survey and count our city’s unhoused population. Along with volunteering with local non-profits and foundations, Christian has now set himself up to run for Mayor of his beloved city, believing things are good, and they are going to get better. It’s time for a new generation of leadership to represent the diverse modern families moving into to Ontario along with the beautiful communities that already call it home.
