Victor Villaseñor - Kids Quotes

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Suddenly I remembered Jeannie Windflow, who'd taught me how to kiss when we were kids. At the age of seventeen, she'd run off with a Mexican guy from Pozole Town who was nineteen years old, had a job, and was one of the handsomest guys I'd ever seen. He was a semi-professional boxer and real dark. She was a track star, a straight-A student, and real blonde.

Victor Villaseñor
Mexican kids were now speaking quite a bit of English. Even Ramón. But he was a changed kid. There was a darkness in his eyes like a horse that had just been beaten one too many times.

Victor Villaseñor
Papa always explained to me that there is no such thing as a kids' game. That there are only games with which kids are learning the facts of life, but it's the parents that are so tapados—so blind and constipated that they can't see what these games are really all about.

Victor Villaseñor
It was truly a good thing that I'd found writing as my outlet or I was sure I would have become a mass murderer, killing all those heartless, racist teachers who'd beat us Mexican kids down since kindergarten

Victor Villaseñor
Promise me, he said, that you'll say nothing, and if something happens to me, you'll always honor our parents. I swallowed. He was scaring me. Look, he continued, I've met a lot of rich kids and their parents at the Academy, and I'll tell you, there are no parents that I'm prouder to have as my father and mother than ours. They rose up with nothing, Mundo, except guts and faith and love. Do you understand? I shook my head. No, I don't, I said. He licked his lips. He seemed to be licking his lips all the time now. You will, he said. You just pay close attention, and you will.

Victor Villaseñor
Look, said Jake, last night, after you went to bed, we told your dad how we'd come across you running away from home. You did? I said. Yes, we did. It was the honest thing to do, son. And you should've seen the hurt look on your dad's face, because, you see, Mexican kids don't run away from home. White kids, gringo kids, like me and Luke, we're the ones who run from home, but Mexicans, they ain't never do that.

Victor Villaseñor
Suddenly, I wondered what the hell was going on. Ramón had been the smartest and most capable guy in our whole grade in thinking and figuring out things, and he'd been considered dumb, too. And now Gus, he was also the smartest guy of all of us during recess and he just said that he'd been flunked before. This didn't make any damn—I mean, blessed—sense to me at all! The smartest kids I knew were all considered stupid.

Victor Villaseñor
Then I saw it. Oh, my Lord God, Ramón, he was like our very own Jesus Christ. I could now see this so clearly as he walked across the school ground. He had a glowing light all about him, because he, just like Jesus, was willing to carry the cross of crucifixion for all the rest of us lesser kids.

Victor Villaseñor
YOU'VE GOT RAGE. THEN YOU RETURN TO THE STATES WITH THAT RAGE! YOU DON'T RUN AWAY! You saw bad, terrible things happen to you and other Mexican kids in school, then YOU DON'T CHICKENSHIT OUT! No, you go back, and you do something with that rage that will MAKE A DIFFERENCE for all those kids! That's the beauty of the United States! Even the little guy can fight back!

Victor Villaseñor