Professor Garcia has been one of my favorite professors at UCLA. He is clearly very knowledgeable and passionate about what he teaches, which translates into great lectures. The assigned reading is pretty heavy; however, a light skim will do as long as you pay attention in lecture. He does mention some things in lecture that are not in the readings and will pop up in exams. Lectures aren't podcasted, so going to class is pretty important.
Graded material includes one short research paper, a midterm and a final. Exams consist of a couple of essays and short answers. Grading is pretty lenient, so I'd say the class is an easy A as long as you do the basics.