Testimonial letter from Fernando Martin Garcia

This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.

This letter is from Fernando Martin Garcia. It is "Exhibit A-1898" in the Noles collection.

The original letter was handwritten in Spanish, a text transcription has not yet been created. A text version of its translation has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription.

The image in the text box links to a pdf file with the original letter, the translation, and a notary statement attesting to the validity of the translation. It has 3 pages.

translation July 24, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: This letter is to explain basically the reasons why I support the presence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the United States. For me, He represents the most profound and advanced vision in any creative field - such as the arts and sciences. I met Bhagwan while on a visit through the Orient while trying to capture a different style of life through images, for that is my profession, that of news photographer. Surprised by the beauty of his community in Poona, I attended a lecture of his, where he answered with amazing simplicity and clarity all types of questions, no matter how complicated or difficult they seemed. Four years later I've returned to experience his presence in the United States at this new community, two years after his arrival. I can assure you that the presence of this man, whose genius is far and above any doubt, has inspired the creation of this marvelous city, Rajneeshpuram, where there is a spirit of peace, order, harmony and happiness without the least need for repression. It is also his presence and positive vision of life which makes thousands of persons flower around the world in the fields of arts and sciences. The continuous help of Bhagwan is very evident daily through activites at Rajneeshpuram such as music, painting, cinematography, and through crafts such as jewelry-making and pottery. And advanced technological ecology is inspired and supported by Bhagwan there also. For these and other positive contributions I believe that all necessary should be done to facilitate in any manner the stay of this profound genius, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Fernando Martin Garcia

(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)