Burro Genio

By Victor Villasenor  

Now available in Spanish—the touching memoir from the acclaimed author of Thirteen Senses and Rain of Gold called “redemptive…a celebration of courage and tenacity” (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

About to discuss his novel Macho! with a group of teachers, Victor Villaseñor became overcome with emotion, childhood memories filling his head. Putting aside his prepared remarks, Villaseñor explained the source of feelings to the assembled crowd: the trauma inflicted on him by his seventh-grade English teacher, and the hate he silently harbored for American educators. Villaseñor received a standing ovation from the audience, and this experience inspired him to share his story in Burro Genio.

Although gifted and highly imaginative, as a child Villaseñor coped with an untreated learning disability (he was finally diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 44) and the frustration of growing up Latino in an English-only school system in the 1940s. In Burro Genio, Villaseñor recalls his transformation from an angry adolescent to one of the premier writers of our day.