Growing up on his parents' ranch in North San Diego County, Victor Villasenor's teenage years were marked by a painful quest to find a place for himself in a world he did not fit into. Discriminated due to his Mexican heritage, Victor questions the tenets of his faith and the restrictions it places on his own spirituality and sexuality. Ultimately, his search for identity takes him to Mexico to learn of his family's roots, where he soon discovers that his heritage doesn't determine his intelligence or success. Through this often humorous and poignant tale, Victor deftly undermines the macho stereotype so often associated with Latinos, while exposing the tender vulnerability and naivete of a young man grappling with the roles foisted on him by the church and society. Victor's youthful misadventures elicit sympathy, laughter, and tears as he attempts to divine the mysteries of the opposite sex in this powerful, revealing memoir. "The clarity that comes from Villasenor's personal and cultural experience is not matched in any of Steinbeck's major works" ("Los Angeles Times").

Standing at the podium, Victor Villasenor looked at the group of educators amassed before him, and his mind flooded with childhood memories of humiliation and abuse at the hands of his teachers. He became enraged. With a pounding heart, he began to speak of these incidents. When he was through, to his great disbelief he received a standing ovation. Many in the audience could not contain their own tears.

So begins the passionate, touching memoir of Victor Villasenor. Highly gifted and imaginative as a child, Villasenor coped with an untreated learning disability (he was finally diagnosed, at the age of forty-four, with extreme dyslexia) and the frustration of growing up Latino in an English-only American school in the 1940s. Despite teachers who beat him because he could not speak English, Villasenor clung to his dream of one day becoming a writer. He is now considered one of the premier writers of our time.

Roberto Garcia is only seventeen, but he already has big dreams of making his fortune, building a family, and gaining the respect of his community. With ambition to burn and a passion to prove his manhood, Roberto takes the dangerous journey north, crossing the Mexican border to pick fruit in the "golden fields" of California. It is said that a good man can make more money there in a week than in an entire year in the mountains of Michoacan, his home. With dreams that overshadow harsh realities, Roberto is unprepared for the jammed boxcars and bolted trucks that carry undervalued migrant workers through the searing desert to long days of harsh labor.
Raw, powerful, poetic, and heartbreaking, "Macho "brings to life the brutality of migrant labor, Cesar Chavez's efforts to unionize workers, and a vivid portrayal of the immigrant experience through the eyes of a brave young man who bids goodbye to everything he knows to follow his dreams.

A daring memoir of love, magic, adventure, and miracles, Victor Villaseñor's Thirteen Senses continues the exhilarating family saga that began in the widely acclaimed bestseller Rain of Gold, delivering a stunning story of passion, family, and the forgotten mystical senses that stir within us all.

Thirteen Senses begins with the fiftieth wedding anniversary of the aging former bootlegger Salvador and his elegant wife, Lupe. When asked by a young priest to repeat the sacred ceremonial phrase "to honor and obey," Lupe surprises herself and says. "No, I will not say 'obey'. How dare you! You don't talk to me like this after fifty years of marriage and I now knowing what I know!" After the hilarious shock of Lupe's rejection of the ceremony, the Villaseñor family is forced to examine the love that Lupe and Salvador have shared for so many years -- a universal, gut-honest love that will eventually energize and inspire the couple into old age.

De pie frente al publico, Victor Villasenor miro al grupo de maestros sentados frente a el, y su mente se lleno de recuerdos de infancia llenos de humillacion y abuso por parte de sus profesores. Se sintio enfurecer. Con el corazon en la mano, comenzo a hablar de esos abusos. Y cuando termino, para su gran sorpresa, encontro a todos los profesores de pie aplau-diendolo enfaticamente. Muchas de las personas en el publico no lograban contener sus lagrimas.

Asi comienzan las conmovedoras y apasionadas memorias de Victor Villasenor. A pesar de ser muy talentoso e imaginativo desde muy nino, tuvo que vivir con una dificultad de aprendizaje (no fue sino hasta los 44 anos de edad que fue diagnosticado con un caso grave de dislexia), y la frustracion de ser latino en una escuela americana en la que solo se hablaba ingles. A pesar de los profesores que lo maltrataban porque no podia hablar ingles, Villasenor se aferro a su sueno de un dia convertirse en escritor. Hoy en dia, es considerado uno de los autores mas importantes de nuestra era.

It was a time of love and war, heroism and miracles - a time when men and women still danced up the wild steps of heaven, driven by magic and faith, enraptured by the joy of la vida. Against this spellbinding backdrop, the critically acclaimed author of Rain of Gold creates a powerful, moving portrait of his father's family - the Villasenors - who in their courage and love of life represent the whole passionate history of Mexico. In Wild Steps of Heaven, Victor Villasenor breathes life into his father's family, and in particular, the Villasenor women. Mothers and daughters, sisters and lovers - their faith transcends the madness that surrounds them, and their love is all-powerful, life-giving, and touched by the miraculous. Margarita is the indomitable Indian matriarch who guards her family and conquers her enemies with the cutting edge of unconditional love - and a touch of magic. As a young woman, she was swept away by Juan Jesus Villasenor, who carried the blood of Spanish royalty in his veins - and who, unarmed, once wrestled with the great serpent that held his village hostage...and won. Together, Don Juan and Dona Margarita would create a dynasty on the eve of the Mexican Revolution. Their daughters...Emilia and Luisa, who find courage in their mother's faith, and searing, explosive passion amid the turmoil of war. Their sons...Jose, who becomes a legendary horseman and a hero of the revolution. And Juan, the youngest, Victor Villasenor's father, through whose eyes this brilliant, tumultuous saga unfolds. Rejected by his own father, little Juan would learn from his mother how to live and love con gusto y amor, and from his brother, Jose, how to be a man.

In the American Indian belief, it is said that we never really know who we are until we find our totem, and once we do, then everything falls into place, even in the midst of chaos. "Lion Eyes" is the exciting true story of Jan Milburn, who came face-to-face with his totem - and was transformed. As a love-deprived young child, he got lost in a snowstorm in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, and a huge mountain lion led him safely home...setting him on a course for a miraculous life. Acclaimed bestselling author Victor Villasenor gives voice to Jan's thrilling tale, full of danger, clashes between light and darkness, romance and healing miracles. Against the backdrop of the '60s - a time of love and war, a time of turmoil and social upheaval, a time of young people's exuberant exploration while the establishment tried to hold on to the past - Jan Milburn chose an unusual calling...becoming the youngest minister ever ordained by the state of California. Jan's spiritual path, incredibly, led him from San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District of the '60s to Mexico, and into the darkness of the drug world. Hunted by a notorious assassin, he stared down death and encountered the very depths of depravity and violence - but ultimately awakened to his magical Spirit Guides and the Kingdom of God within each of us that transcends religion and 'of-the-body' limitations. It was at this time that Mireya, a beautiful young Indian girl, saw in Jan the noble heart of a lion and the vision of an eagle. Nothing could get in the way of her love and admiration for this man. It was written in the stars, she said. Eventually, Mireya and Jan married and were instrumental in helping to return more than two million acres of stolen land to the Tarahumara Indians of Chihuahua, Mexico. "Lion Eyes" is a mystical, heartfelt, soul-inspiring love story of timeless relevance. It shows us that our global future lies not just in our politics and religious beliefs, but also in our unwavering love and our forgotten native wisdom that once we find our totem, everything falls into place, even amidst chaos...illustrated by one man's incredible life, which can become the norm for all of humanity!

En un deslumbrante relato de pasión, Trece Sentidos de Victor Villaseñor continúa la estipulante epopeya familiar que empezó con el ampliamente reconocido bestseller Lluvia de Oro.

Trece Sentidos abre con las bodas de oro del ya mayor Salvador y su elegante esposa, Lupe. Cuando un joven sacerdote le pide a Lupe que repita la sagrada frase ceremonial 'respetar y obedecer,' Lupe se sorprende a sí misma al contestar--¡No, no voy a decir obedecer! ¡Cómo se atreve! ¡Ah, no! ¡Usted no me va a hablar así después de cincuenta años de matrimonio y sabiendo lo que sé!--. Así, la familia Villaseñor se ve forzada a examinar el amor que Lupe y Salvador han compartido por tantos a ños: un amor universal, entrñable y sincero que eventualmente dará energía e inspiración a la pareja en su vejez.