Burro Genius: A Memoir Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Standing at the podium, Victor Villaseñor 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 Villaseñor. Highly gifted and imaginative as a child, Villaseñor 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, Villaseñor clung to his dream of one day becoming a writer. He is now considered one of the premier writers of our time.
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Later Printing Used edition (September 20, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060526130
ISBN-13: 978-0060526139
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #68,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #17 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Hispanic & Latino #49 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional U.S. > West #89 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Hispanic
This is book is a touching memoir of an American man of Mexican descent growing up in 1940's San Diego County. The author takes us through many themes of his childhood, and like a good storyteller weaves these stories into an account of a childhood that was both harrowing and often uplifting. The story takes us from when Victor Villasenor was a child till the time he published his first book after an astounding 265 rejections from publishers. It is the story of one mans ability to transcend beyond the small minds and ignorance that experienced growing up. The opening chapter has Mr. Villasenor being hastily chosen as the main speaker for a conference of English teachers. He takes the opportunity to wail at a racist educational system that not only marginalized him as a student, it also tried to crush his spirit of creativity and rob him of his identity. This event sets off the author reminiscing about his childhood experiences, going beyond his school experiences, and how he was able to not only survive but was able to thrive. The book contains several themes, one of which is racism. The author describes for us how as a child in elementary school he was psychologically and physically abused by racist teachers in the school he attended. There are times that the reader may feel themselves becoming overwhelmed by the sheer amount of abuse the author is the brunt of. It is repeated so often and sometimes with such intensity the reader begins to feel the helplessness that the author felt as a child and as disempowered. The author writes of the repeated and escalating abuse so often that is sometimes clouds the rest of the story. The abuse becomes so bad that the author fantasizes about killing his teachers.
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