Victor Villasenor once wanted to kill his teachers. His hatred drove him to write emotions down on paper 40 years ago.
When he began writing at the age of 20, Villaseñor did it out of anger and hate for the teachers and others who told him Mexicans were dangerous and incapable of achievement.
“The school system basically slaughtered me,” Villaseñor said.
The 62-year-old Mexican-American best-selling author has long since let go of his anger and now writes to bring people and cultures together.
Villaseñor will speak to University students and staff this weekend as part of MEChA’s Second Annual Mictlampa Chuatlampa (Northwest) Regional Conference. His presentation begins at 5 p.m. Saturday in the Agate Hall ballroom and will be followed by a book signing. Tickets, which include lunch and dinner, are $8 for students and $15 for community members.
Villaseñor was born in the Spanish-speaking district of Carlsbad, Calif., in 1940. When he started school at age five, he did not know any English. After years of discrimination, cultural and language barriers and a learning disability later identified as dyslexia, he dropped out of high school and moved to Mexico, where he discovered Mexican art, literature and music never taught to him in his native California.
Mexico helped Villaseñor understand his past, but when he returned to the United States in 1960, he still wanted to destroy the teachers and books who taught him to hate himself and his heritage.
“Finally, I decided that instead of killing people, it would be better to write books and kill the one-sided, ignorant ideas that were poisoning us all inside our brains,” he said.
Villaseñor said the hate drove him to continue turning in manuscripts through 265 rejections before publication in 1973 of his first book, “Macho,” which the Los Angeles Times compared to the best of Steinbeck.
This eventually led to his best-selling book “Rain of Gold,” which was published in 1991 and is the precursor to his latest work, “Thirteen Senses.”
Villaseñor, also a public speaker, said he starts his talks by asking the audience how many people speak English, Spanish or a third language.
“Any county that speaks English-only is bankrupt and going nowhere,” he said, adding that diversity is “important for a community of health and vitality.”
The author said he has high hopes for America and the rest of the world.
“This country of the United States can become a great nation by taking out the dots,” he said. “Our strength is like prairie grass. Prairie grass can survive a 5,000-year ice age; a 5,000-year drought. Why? Because some of the short grass has a root system that goes 22 feet into mother Earth.”
“Thirteen Senses,” published in 2001, includes the author’s answer to bringing people together.
“What happens is, I help them break out of the box and … open the possibility for them to become geniuses,” he said.
Villaseñor calls the senses of sight, hearing, smell and taste the “brain computer” — the senses one uses to think. The “heart computer” is composed of the sense of feeling, along with balance and intuition. He said balance allows people to be two things at once: “Conservative and liberal; pro-life and for abortion in certain cases. ‘And,’ not ‘or.’”
“Balance takes polarity out of the mind (and) dissolves opinion, and understanding starts surfacing,” Villaseñor explained.
Villaseñor said the brain computer helps to think, and the heart computer helps to know.
The next two senses — music and “being psychic” — are part of the “soul computer.”
“Uni-verse means unity-soul,” he said, describing the importance of music. Being psychic is a result of using the first eight senses, according to Villaseñor. He said he does not like to give out the remaining four senses, because when someone can use the first nine, he will figure them out for himself.
“What I do with my writing is take (people) out of the brain computer and into the heart and soul computer,” he said.
MEChA member Isaac Torres said Villaseñor’s stories include mystery and spiritual depth.
“He speaks about things on a metaphysical level,” Torres said.
MEChA’s Internal Director Jesus Garcia said he respects Villaseñor as an important person in Chicano history.
“We’re learning a big part of culture from him,” he said.
Villaseñor said putting words on paper gives him a feeling of accomplishment.
“When I write … I’m flying,” he said. “Writing to me is just a beautiful, wonderful thing.”