Carmen Lomas Garza was born in Kingsville, Texas, in 1948. Inspired by her parent’s activism with the American G.I. Forum, Garza joined the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Although she had decided at the age of thirteen to become a visual artist, she states, "It was the Chicano Movement that inspired the dedication of my creativity to the depiction of special and everyday events in the lives of Mexican Americans based on my memories and experiences in South Texas."   Adding, "I saw the need to create images that would elicit recognition and appreciation among Mexican Americans, both adults and children, while at the same time serve as a source of education for others not familiar with our culture."   

According to the Texan Cultures website, Carmen Lomas Garza taught herself how to draw and learned about the basics of art by checking out books from her local library. She also practiced drawing every day and drew pictures of people she saw at school, at home, and in her neighborhood. During her undergraduate studies at Texas Arts and Industry University (now Texas A&M University, Kingsville), Garza decided that it was important for her to create art that would be understood by people of all ages.  She learned to be proud of her culture and wanted to educate others using her art.  She says that her artistic creations helped her “heal the wounds inflicted by discrimination and racism.”  Garza also feels that by creating positive images of Mexican-American families, her work can help combat racism

 Garza is the recipient of numerous awards and has exhibited her work in galleries and museums across the United States.  She has had several major one-person exhibitions in the United States including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden/Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris in New York City in 1995, the Smith College Museum in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1992, and The Mexican Museum in San Francisco in 1987.

Garza’s artwork was the subject of an interactive exhibition for children organized by the Austin Children’s Museum in 2003 in Austin, Texas. The exhibition traveled for 5 years to children’s museums in the United States. In 2019 the John E. Conner Museum at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, Texas, acquired the exhibition “In My Family” and installed it permanently in the museum.