Heritage Lecture Series
Victor Villaseñor
Finding and Promoting the Genius in All of Us
Dreams are the seeds, vision is the water and the heart is the soil for planting our highest of dreams and see them grow into the tree of human kind.
Victor Villaseñor's Official Website
Wikipedia - Victor Villaseñor
In celebration of Raza/Native American Heritage Month, the Center for Culture, Gender, and Sexuality; and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) de Sonoma is pleased to present acclaimed best-selling author, Victor Villaseñor on Wednesday, May 2nd at 7:30 p.m. in the Cooperage. The event is free to SSU students, faculty and staff, and $5 for general admission at the door.
Author Victor Villaseñor speaks as vividly as he writes. In his candid and heartfelt manner, Villaseñor will passionately and openly talk about his own life obstacles as he addresses the difficulties of growing up feeling lost between two worlds, in a constant struggle to find common ground between the culture of his Mexican- Indian-European ancestors and his family’s newly adopted American homeland, all the while coping with an undiagnosed learning disability. With firsthand knowledge of the effects of discrimination and racial separation in society, Villaseñor’s motto has become “We are all one race, the human race.” Believing this creed is essential to community and global harmony, his writings and speeches resonate with it.
Villaseñor’s body of works include a number of nonfiction books which are all used in schools throughout the country: The trilogy Wild Steps Of Heaven, Rain of Gold, and Thirteen Senses, Jury: The People vs. Juan Corona, Macho!, and Walking Stars, a collection of short stories written especially to inspire young people. Burro Genius, the first book of the second trilogy, released July 2004, is a national bestseller, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Victor also wrote the screenplay for The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, starring Edward James Olmos. 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.
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 until beginning 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.
"Finding and Promoting the Genius in All of Us" is brought to you by the Center for Culture, Gender & Sexuality, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) de Sonoma, Instructionally Related Activities, the SSU Student Union, and Associated Students Productions.
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