Burro genius: A memoir by Victor Villasenor

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

PREFACE

Villasenor started this novel in 1962 at the age of 22. The manuscript was repeatedly rejected but that didn’t deter the author. It “became an obsession” with long hours of writing involved. Even his friend, a writer, read the book and told him that the book was no good. But this didn’t deter the author. After a stint in the Army, he came back to the book. He eventually set the book aside and wrote other books to be rejected even more. 265 times for Macho! After marriage and children and the deaths of his parents, Villasenor published his novel. After 40 years.

This preface is a description of perseverance in the face of negative feedback. The author believed so much in the product he was creating that he continued through his journey, even in the midst of continual setbacks lasting forty years.

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER ONE

The novel begins in 1973 (well before the publication of Burro Genius in 2004). Villasenor was invited to give a workshop at the California Association of Teachers of English in Long Beach, CA. He had recently published Macho! and was there with five other writers. They were all waiting on a nationally recognized best seller to arrive and give the keynote address. Villasenor feels out of place in his Western attire, including cowboy hat, while everyone else seems sleek and fashionable, especially the publicist, Karen, and her assistant, Sandy.

After keeping the CATE attendees waiting for close to an hour, Karen asks if any of the writers have speaking experience. No one speaks up so Villasenor does. Karen is hesitant, possibly because of his appearance, but Sandy talks her into it. Before going to the stage, Villasenor stops at the restroom and struggles to urinate. He reflects back on how this always happened to him before wrestling matches in secondary school. He finally finishes by running the faucet and returns to the hall.

At this point, Villasenor’s hat becomes a point of contention. He wants to wear it — it was his father’s hat. Karen is adamantly against it. This prompts a comparison. “Women got to wear colorful clothes and even padded bras in the majors, didn’t they? So why couldn’t a guy wear a bright turquoise shirt and a big belt buckle? Hell, her bra was probably even padded” (p. 12).

As they open the doors to the main room, the audience size is suddenly overwhelming. Sandy goes the microphone and introduces Villasenor. When everyone starts to clap, including Karen, Villasenor snatches the hat from her then walks on stage. “This was my padded bra with which to face the world” (p. 13).

Villasenor notes that in the crowd, it is mostly Anglo teachers. There are few Blacks and no “brown face(s)”. He briefly considers how he will discuss his process to writing Macho! but then suddenly is filled with anger looking at all those English teachers. He begins ranting at the teachers. He calls them out for being terrible teachers and that it was their choice to become teachers. He then becomes emotional as he describes how he was tortured by teachers throughout his schooling. His passion to become an author stemmed from hatred and fury at the terrible teachers he had because he wanted to become a voice for those who suffered like him.

When some teachers look like they are about to leave, he yells at them to sit down. He says that if they are wanting to leave, they are obviously the bad teachers he is talking about because they don’t want to face what he is telling them. They sit back down. He passionately describes how when he went to school he only knew Spanish but they told him, “No Spanish. English only.” How he peed on himself the first day of kindergarten because he didn’t know how to ask in English. How the children were beat at school if they were caught speaking in Spanish. How the teachers encouraged the kids to form groups and pick on the Mexican kids.

One teacher stands up and declares that she won’t listen to him. She calls him a “spoiled, overpaid author.” He tells her he only got $4500 for his book that he worked on for a year. When he tells the teacher off, telling her to leave because he doesn’t like her, several people in the crowd applaud.

He speaks for thirty minutes more and receives a standing ovation. The teachers were inspired by his impassioned speech, asking for him to speak to their students as they waited in line to get copies of his book signed.

Karen tells him that the LA Times and another newspaper want to interview him. Villasenor is excited because he hopes this means his book will get reviewed. Karen explains to him that this is better than a book review because the interview will hit a broader audience.

After the event is over and the interviews are completed, Villasenor is sitting at the bar drinking a beer. He is approached by a man and asked if he was the one that told off Gladys Marsh. Villasenor stands up, preparing for a fight and says that he did tell off a woman but he doesn’t know who it was. The man smiles. He is a part of the teachers’ union and has been waiting for someone to put Marsh in her place for years. Then he cautions that it’s okay to get people’s attention but now Villasenor needs to plant a seed of hope in his next speech. When he asks if Villasenor ever had a single good teacher, Villasenor simply shrugs. They part ways.

Villasenor then describes how school became such an awful experience that by 3rd grade, he was a frequent bed wetter. He remembers the hope his mother gave him every night and the words of encouragement his father and his grandmother, a Yaqui Indian, had given him.

In chapter one, we are introduced to an adult Villasenor and given brief flashbacks of his heart-wrenching experiences of the education system growing up, particularly as a Mexican boy in that system. His inability to remember even one teacher that had been kind and considerate is devastating. In the 21st century, we are more often to find teachers that are “good” compared to “bad” teachers. And, unless an educator wants to end their career prematurely, the physically brutish attack of Mexicans never happens anymore. It left such a mark on Villasenor that even years afterwards, he has a bubbling anger in him.

His recounting of his speech is compelling. Particularly because this is occurring some ten years after he graduated high school. I think back to my students. I am in the middle of my ninth year in education. Will my students look back at me as a teacher that encouraged them to do better, to think higher, to achieve more? Or will they recall me as a rude, impatient woman that didn’t care? Of course, my hope is the former. But how many students felt marginalized in my classroom? Certainly unintentionally by me but all the same in the Western education classroom designed to speed kids through with minimal to average content knowledge.

According to the U.S. News and World Report, Texas ranks 33rd in the U.S. in Pre-K through 12th grade education in 2019. This is my state. 33rd. Out of 50. Wow. Did I teach my kids to a 33rd ranking level? I would hope I could do better than that as a teacher.

CHAPTER TWO

Villasenor dreams in the hotel room after the convention. In his dreams, he slips under a bridge, “a bridge bridging my Indian and European roots, a bridge bridging my Mexican and American cultures, a bridge bridging my indigenous beliefs and Catholic-Christian upbringing, a bridge bridging my first few years of life in the barrio and then my life on our rancho grande, then that whole big world outside of our gates” (p. 23). And in his dreams, he remembers a substitute teacher from seventh grade that had covered classes for a mere three days and changed Villasenor.

This occurred at the Army Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California, where Villasenor attended school after struggling in public school to the fifth grade. Then he went to Catholic school for a couple of years with no better results. The root of his distress in school was his lack of ability to read at grade level. This had been true since he started school in kindergarten.

The social structure in the Academy encourages using brute force and intimidation, neither of which Villasenor considers strengths at this point. The cadets that do this the best (by mirroring the officers) get promoted. Captain Moses, Villasenor’s English teacher, is one of the worst bullies.

This dream goes to the time when Moses was absent for three consecutive days. The substitute was a young, vibrant man that enjoyed outdoor sports named Mr. Swift. He describes a carefree style of life when he gives a bit of background to the students of himself and his wife. Then he tells the students to start writing about something they love to do, that they have such a passion for he’ll be able to “‘FEEL the EXCITEMENT of what it is that you love to do!’” (p. 26).

Villasenor writes like he’s never written before. Because Mr. Swift has lifted the constraints of worrying about the mechanics of writing. Villasenor writes quickly and descriptively while the top student, Warrick, wants to know more specifics about the grade. By the time Mr. Swift shuts Warrick down, Villasenor is already on his second page.

Villansenor’s story is titled “The Smartest Human I Ever Met, My Brother’s Dog, Shep,” and describes how, when he had been eight years old, Villasenor began hunting with Shep because his brother was ill. Shep used a specific hunting technique of making the prey dizzy up on a fence post or tree by circling the fence post or tree until the prey fell down. They did this for months until Villasenor’s brother died. Then, Shep ran into the hills and was never seen again.

He got an A. The first in his life. Villasenor even pulls Mr. Swift aside the next day and tells him he needs to fix the grade because he’s Mexican and he has never gotten an A. He should have been given a D or a C. But Mr. Swift stands by the A. And sends Villasenor to write another story. This time it’s the story of his parents coming home to tell him and his little sister that their brother had died at the hospital but they already knew because of Shep.

Villasenor wakes up and cries. “Teaching didn’t have to be long and boring and laborious. No, teaching could be done as fast as a lightning bolt. He’d cut across the valleys of my deepest doubts, giving light to the darkest crevices of my beaten-down, inhibited mind, accessing a natural storytelling ability within me that was utterly profound!” (p. 31).

As Villasenor awakes, he has a “remember when” moment. The other students couldn’t believe he had been given an A and crumple up his paper and throw it on the ground. One student, however, doesn’t. George Hillam. He tells Villasenor that everyone else got Bs and Wallrick even got a D for trying to copy Mr. Swift’s stories of the day before.

The three days Mr. Swift was there, Villasenor got hope as he received more As. Villasenor recalls how Mr. Swift had told them about the storytellers of old and how many cultures had oral histories before writing. Then, when writing was developed, people learned to read to better understand the world around them.

But, inevitably, Captain Moses returns. And the other students immediately tell him about Villasenor’s success in his absence. Moses takes back Villasenor’s papers and begins to viciously go over them in red, turning the As into Ds. He even makes fun of Villasenor’s middle name — Edmundo — saying that he spelt it wrong. Villasenor is standing at attention for this entire public shaming. And he begins to get angry.

“I was now a warrior, an ancestral brave, hearing the beat, beat, beating of my heart as I’d never head my heart beating before” (p. 36). He is standing there contemplating Moses’ murder at his hands. Moses finishes the humiliation and tells Villasenor to sit but he continues to stand. His rage is centered on the fact that Moses made fun of his name and names are sacred. His middle name of Edmundo had been given to him because of the big cook who had taught his father how to read and write while in prison during the Mexican Revolution. The book he had read was The Count of Monte Cristo which had given his father the bravery to survive prison at the age of thirteen with a bunch of criminals that continually tried to rape him.

When the bell rings to leave class, Villasenor is still standing, defying Moses in front of everyone. As he leaves class, he is jumped by three of Moses’ pet students. Even Hillam is upset with him for trying to fight the establishment. As they line up in formation, Villasenor stands next to a large blonde kid that is new — Igo. He pokes the kid, who yells and pokes Villasenor back, causing Wallrick to yell at Igo. Villasenor keeps on until Wallrick yells at Igo again. So Wallrick challenges Igo to a fight for making him look bad as the leader of the squad.

When they fight, Igo easily defeats Wallrick. But he’s enraged at Villasenor for getting him into this so, after lunch, he chases Villasenor. Villasenor has a pretty good lead so he hides around a corner and pulls out a pencil. When Igo turns the corner, he shoves the pencil into his chest. Igo starts screaming bloody murder and Villasenor takes him to the infirmary. Igo never turns Villasenor in for the incident.

In this chapter, we see an explicit example of the mental anguish Villasenor was put through in school. By the time he reached 7th grade, he believes that he is a no good, dirty Mexican that can’t properly read or write. This is what he has been told at school from the very first day by his teachers. But we get to see a teacher inspire him now. And Villasenor must still have that grain of hope deep in his soul because it takes just one day for him to begin to believe in his voice. And by the third day, he is ecstatic that someone is accepting him as he is, Mexican and bad writing and all. But he is also angry because Mr. Swift gave him so much hope to leave and never be seen again. And Moses fills in his old place of despotism and racism and begins to beat him back down again. While he does stand in defiance, Villasenor knows he will never win the war but he wants to win a few battles.

We see a viciousness in Villasenor here that will be reflected throughout the novel. He is angry and contemplates the death of Moses in detail as he recounts his hunting skills. We get to see the true depths of his anger at the soul-deep level. Villasenor has been put through anguish in his body, mind, and soul and this chapter is only the beginning of his stories.