Born in the barrio of Carlsbad, California in 1940,
Victor Villaseñor was raised on a ranch four miles north in Oceanside. Since
his parents were born in Mexico, Villaseñor spoke only Spanish when he
started school. After years of facing language and cultural barriers, heavy
discrimination and a reading problem, later diagnosed as dyslexia, Victor
dropped out of high school his junior year and moved to Mexico. There he
discovered a wealth of Mexican art, literature, music, that helped him
recapture and understand the dignity and richness of his heritage.
Victor returned to the U.S. at the age of 20. He began to feel the old
frustration and anger return as he once again witnessed the disregard toward
poor and uneducated people and especially toward the Mexicans. Then a chance
encounter with James Joyce’s Portrait Of An Artist As A Young Man, changed
Victor’s life. It awakened a desire to confront through literature the
problems associated with his cultural heritage that continued to plague him.
After producing 9 novels, 65 short stories, and receiving 265
rejections, Villaseñor sold his first novel, Macho!, which the Los Angeles
Times compared to the best of John Steinbeck. This began a journey that
would eventually lead to the publication of the national bestseller Rain of
Gold. Used by thousands of teachers and school systems across the nation as
required reading, Rain of Gold tells the story of Victor’s family, taking
the reader from war-torn Mexico during the Revolution of 1910 to the present
day.
Villaseñor’s body of works includes a number of nonfiction
books, all used in schools throughout the country: The first family trilogy
Wild Steps of Heaven, Rain of Gold, and Thirteen Senses; the second family
trilogy Burro Genius, Crazy Loco Love, and Beyond Rain of Gold. Other books:
Jury: The People vs Juan Corona; Macho!; Lion Eyes. Several titles are
national bestsellers and Pulitzer Prize submitted. Walking Stars is a little
book of nine short stories written especially to inspire youth. And a
collection of award winning children’s books, written for ages 2 to 200,
each teach an important life lesson: The Frog and His Friends Save Humanity;
Goodnight, Papito Dios; Little Crow to the Rescue; Mother Fox and Mr.
Coyote; and The Stranger and the Red Rooster. The screenplay for The Ballad
of Gregorio Cortez, starring Edward James Olmos, was also written by Victor.
A miniseries on Rain of Gold, and Thirteen Senses is in the works.
Villaseñor’s acclaimed written works, as well as his inspiring lectures,
have earned him numerous awards and endorsements, including the Founding
John Steinbeck Chair appointment.
A gifted and accomplished speaker,
Victor Villaseñor, in his candid and heartfelt manner, brings a fresh
perspective to a number of universal themes, including pride in cultural
heritage, the strength of family, dedication to education and personal
achievement, the power of the written word, world harmony and peace.
Villaseñor’s commitment to world harmony and peace is demonstrated through
Snow Goose Global Thanksgiving, his nonprofit organization established to
promote peace and harmony throughout the world. His self-published book,
Snow Goose Global Thanksgiving, describes a simple philosophy that it’s time
in human story for women and children to start leading, with men ‘following
in front’. Villaseñor’s motto has become “We are all one race. The human
race!”
Victor Villaseñor continues to live on the ranch where he was
raised.