Book : Burro Genius A Memoir - Villasenor, Victor

-Titulo Original : Burro Genius A Memoir

-Fabricante :

Rayo

-Descripcion Original:

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. Review “Burro Genius invites the reader to analyze on their own past and reflect on how one’s actions and words directly affect those one comes in contact with.” - La Prensa-San Diego“A redemptive book, a celebration of courage and tenacity…. Real writing, as Villasenor shows us, embodies the very same qualities.” - Los Angeles Times Book Review“A powerful memoir.” - San Diego Union-Tribune“Spirited...[Villasenor’s] retelling of sometimes humorous, sometimes chilling childhood experience is at once painful and gratifying. He imaginatively and poetically remembers his tumultuous childhood with the simplicity of a child and the introspection of a sage.” - Publishers Weekly About the Author Victor Villaseñor vive en California en el rancho donde fue criado. Es autor de numerosos obras editoriales y aclamadas obras, entre ellas Lluvia de oro, Jurado: La Gente vs. Juan Corona, y ¡Macho!.Victor Villaseñors bestselling, critically acclaimed works, as well as his inspiring lectures, have brought him the honor of many awards. Most recently he was selected as the founding chair of the John Steinbeck Foundation. He lives in Oceanside, California. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Burro GeniusA MemoirBy Victor VillasenorHarperCollins Publishers, Inc.Copyright © 2005 Victor VillasenorAll right reserved.ISBN: 0060526130Chapter OneId been writing for thirteen years, received over 260 rejections, andhad just gotten -- thank God -- my first book published! The year was1973. I was thirty-three years old, in Long Beach, California, at a CATEconference, meaning California Association of Teachers of English. Iwas in the back room along with five other writers. All of the other authorshad previous works published. We were waiting for the mainspeaker to show up. This writer wasnt only published, like the rest ofus; no, hed had a best seller, was a nationally recognized speaker, andwas going to show up any minute and give the keynote address to theluncheon of the whole CATE convention.Karen, our publishers publicist, was nervous as hell, pacing theroom and trying to figure out what to do. The national best-selling authorshouldve arrived at least thirty minutes ago. He was supposed tohave flown in from the East Coast the night before on the red-eye.Myself, I was pretty nervous, too. Id never been in a room with somany writers before. In fact, Id never even met a published authoruntil about six months back, and that was when Id been in the LosAngeles office of my New York publisher and Id finally found out thatyes, yes, yes, I was really going to be published! I immediately calledmy mother and father, screaming to the high heavens -- Id been soexcited. Bantam from New York was going to publish my book Macho!The room we were in was small, but felt much larger because of allthe excitement. I had no idea what was expected of me, so I stood in acorner by myself, playing it safe and just watching everything. Hell, theonly reason I was even here was because our public