Zulema Garcia Olsen

Zulema Garcia was born in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Jose Maria Garcia de Villarreal and Florencia Leal de Garcia. Her father was a landowner and rancher on the Mexican border. Her mother's Leal ancestors came from the Canary Islands.[1]

She was declared a musical prodigy by the local newspaper, and by her first instructor, R. G. Guerrero, in 1884.[2] Her first composition came at age 11, when she wrote "Un Suspiro", a waltz. At age 13, she wrote a military march. She studied music in Paris with Antoine François Marmontel.[3][4] While a student in Paris, she performed at the Mexican embassy.[5]

Garcia was known as a pianist, a violinist and a composer.[6] Her compositions included "Our Wedding March" (performed at her own wedding); "The Columbian March (Columbus Landing in America)," which was performed by John Philip Sousa's band at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; "On the Death of Prince Napoleon", "The Spring Palace Waltz", and "The Mockingbird".[4] She represented "Spanish Texans" on the State Board of Lady Managers for the Texas World's Fair Exhibit Association, the organization tasked with creating a state display at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.[3] She was the youngest Lady Manager appointed from any state.[6] She performed at a dinner with the Mexican National Band in Chicago in 1892, with many dignitaries of the Exposition present.[7] English writer and Texas newspaperman Henry Ryder-Taylor dedicated a song, "The Snake Ring Song", to Zulema Garcia in 1895.[8][9]

Zulema Garcia married J. J. Olsen in 1896. In their eleven years of marriage, they had seven children.[1] Zulema Garcia Olsen was 33 years old at the time of her death from typhoid fever in April 1907.[4][10] Some of her photographs and papers are archived with the Garcia-Smith Family Collection at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, Texas.[11]