Burro Genius

“My grandmother—God bless her soul—a Yaqui Indian from northern Mexico, was the greatest teacher I’d ever had! And do you know what she taught me, she taught me that each and every day is un milagro given to us by God, and that work, that planting corn and squash with our two hands is holy. She taught me all this with kindness and invitation. Not with ridicule and looking down her nose at me and making me feel like less than human when I didn’t get it at first.”

This passage, as part of Villaseñor’s speech to the English teachers, highlights the formative role of his Yaqui grandmother. Throughout the memoir, his grandmother’s culture and teachings underlie Villaseñor’s worldview and reinforce his connection with the natural world. Villaseñor stresses that his grandmother offered him fundamental life lessons and values that he could not find in his academic education, which introduces the theme of Finding Empowerment Through Family and Community.

“‘THAT’S NOT RIGHT! Teachers and their arrogant ways pit us kids against each other! […] Don’t you get it?’ I said, wiping my eyes. ‘We keep repeating history because that’s what you teach—meanness, greed, and every man and woman out for themselves, without mercy!’”

Villaseñor’s fiery speech at the English teachers’ conference provides a critique of Discrimination Against Mexican Americans in Education while illustrating his personal experiences as a Mexican American student. He emphasizes that discrimination in school perpetuates stereotypes and prejudice, reinforcing injustice and a racist social order. Villaseñor condemns teachers who nurture intolerance and an individualistic mindset among the students, which he argues inhibits their emotional and intellectual development.

“Dreaming, I slept in my large, spacious hotel room. Dreaming of all the different waters that had gone slipping, sliding under the bridge on which I’d been living mi vida. A bridge bridging my Indian and European roots, a bridge bridging my Mexican and American cultures, a bridge bridging my indigenous beliefs and Catholic-Christian upbringing, a bridge bridging my first few years of life in the barrio and then my life on our rancho grande, then that whole big world outside of our gates.”

This passage describes the complexity of Mexican American identity as experienced by Villaseñor. Using the metaphor of the “bridge,” he emphasizes the diversity of Mexican American culture as an amalgamation of Indigenous, European, and Christian traditions, reflecting upon his struggle to connect all these different backgrounds growing up.