Burro Genius

Villaseñor remembers a white boy named Howard. Howard’s English skills were also weak, but the teachers never hit him. Villaseñor liked Howard, and one day the two boys wrestled each other in the playground. When Villaseñor told him he was Mexican, Howard started yelling, falsely claiming that Villaseñor had a knife. The boy said he could not be friends with Villaseñor because his parents had told him that Mexicans were “bad,” “dirty,” and deceitful people. Villaseñor was devastated and stayed with his Mexican friends.

Villaseñor began to see his parents and siblings differently. He felt like crying, thinking that, like all Mexicans, his father was uncivilized, his brother and sister dirty, and his mother ugly. He looked at himself in the mirror and felt like he was just “Mexican and ugly” and that his skin had “a dirty brown color” (69). He resented being born a Mexican. At night, his nightmares continued, but Villaseñor said nothing to his parents, fearing that he would hurt them.

After the incident with Howard, Villaseñor decided to carry two knives at school, to be “the baddest, dirtiest Mexican of all” (71). When a teacher saw him, she took him to the principal and falsely claimed he was fighting. Villaseñor called her a liar and she started hitting him. The incident shocked his parents. Feeling sad about shaming his parents, Villaseñor decided to leave home.

Villaseñor took his horse and left to find some relatives living close to an Indigenous reservation. On the way, he met two old cowboys leading a herd of horses who asked him if he knew of any corrals. Villaseñor suggested his father’s ranch but said he was running away and could not take them there. The cowboys asked him to postpone his plans and lead them to the ranch. Villaseñor agreed.

Villaseñor rode back to the ranch with the cowboys. Villaseñor’s father welcomed them and invited them to dinner. Excited, Villaseñor told his father he wanted to become a cowboy. One of the men argued that the cowboy life belonged to the past. He explained to Villaseñor that people must adapt to a changing world and that, as a kid, he must go to school. At dinner, Villaseñor felt good about his family, seeing the two cowboys imitating his parents’ manners while eating Mexican food.

Villaseñor was determined to run away with the cowboys the next morning, vowing to never return to school. When he met the cowboys at the corral, they told him Mexican children never abandoned their homes because Mexican families were “good” and “loving.” They said Mexican people were always hospitable to them and told Villaseñor that he should never let school separate him from his great “familia.” Villaseñor felt instantly heartened. He and his brother rode with the cowboys for a while as a farewell, then returned home.

Villaseñor notes that seeing white people like the two old cowboys speaking Spanish and admiring his family countered the negative feelings that school instilled in him about Mexicans.

Villaseñor remembers spending a summer with his family building their new ranch in California. His older brother Joseph told him that Mexicans were not “dirty”; they only had dirty clothes because of their ranch work. Villaseñor was excited to see how dynamite was used during construction. When, by accident, a worker’s truck was blown up, Villaseñor was amazed to see his father apologizing and offering to buy the worker a new truck. His father’s behavior taught him that a man must be generous to hard-working people, and Villaseñor realized how intelligent his father was.

At the time, Joseph was also attending the Army Navy Academy. He had befriended two white boys who were helping with construction for a rodeo in Oceanside. Villaseñor watched the boys transporting some of the railroad ties to the construction site in an unsafe manner, with the boys thinking they were behaving like tough cowboys. Joseph injured his leg in an accident during the transportation.

Recalling this incident, Villaseñor reflects upon the differences between American cowboys and vaqueros, the Spanish cowboys, in their approach to training their horses. He claims that while American cowboys were trying to “break” the spirit of the horse, the vaqueros sought to “amanzar,” or train the animal with love so they could win the horse’s trust. That summer with his family taught Villaseñor many important lessons.

When he returned to school, Villaseñor continued to struggle with reading. He tried to avoid reading aloud in the classroom, and his classmates insulted him. His teacher instructed him to sit at the back of the classroom with the “slow-learning Mexicans.” Villaseñor felt ashamed and unhappy, and began to experience headaches in the mornings. Ramon, another Mexican boy, responded to the harassment at school with defiance: Ramon told Villaseñor that feeling like an unworthy Mexican would only mean that Villaseñor was becoming the teacher’s “puppet.” Villaseñor admired Ramon for being brave.

In second grade, Villaseñor and the other Mexican students who struggled with English were transferred to a separate school that did not have any white students. Villaseñor started drawing stars as a habit, recalling his grandmother’s stories about people as “Walking Stars” on Earth. For the third grade, Villaseñor attended a predominantly white school again. The kids at his new school did not mock him and he made a few new friends.

A boy from Texas named Gus taught Villaseñor how to play marbles. When the game became popular among the kids at school, Villaseñor wanted to improve and asked his brother for help. Joseph told him that he could make new game rules if he and the other players voted to do so. He also explained how to choose the right marble and the importance of listening as the basis of learning. While teaching Villaseñor, Joseph also told him stories about their mother and father, praising their father’s intelligence. Joseph urged Villaseñor to be humble and to practice. Thanks to Joseph’s tutoring, Villaseñor realized that “learning can be exciting” (107).

Villaseñor felt excited and confident when he saw the other kids at school. He suggested the vote to the kids, who began discussing new rules. Villaseñor began frequently winning. When Gus insulted Mexicans during a game, Villaseñor managed to control his anger and won. In the next game, Gus tricked him by playing in a bigger circle, and Villaseñor lost.

Joseph criticized his brother for being “cocky,” then taught him how to play in larger circles. He also gave him his special marble to beat Gus. The next day, Villaseñor played, but he let the other boy win. Villaseñor continued practicing and improving. His growing confidence helped him find his love for his family again.

Villaseñor stopped being terrified of school. He was good at math but still struggled with language and reading, preferring numbers to letters. He continued avoiding reading in class, offering a nickel to his classmates who would take his turn. When one day a kid casually slandered Mexicans, Villaseñor immediately reacted, hitting him. Later, the boy apologized. Villaseñor states that beating this kid made him feel stronger.

When Villaseñor’s teacher noticed his struggles with reading, she offered to help him after school. Despite the extra tuition, Villaseñor made little progress: The letters “kept jumping around, making designs that made no sense” (131). When his parents visited the school, the teacher informed them that Villaseñor should repeat the third grade. His father offered a bribe and, when the teacher refused to take it, he lost his temper. Villaseñor’s mother stayed behind to talk with the teacher while Villaseñor and his father went for a walk. His father told him that formal education often trained people to think like “mice,” arguing that people can learn how to think and work in other ways in life. The kids at school kept mocking him, but Villaseñor took comfort in his father’s words.

Villaseñor recalls walking home one day with Gus and spotting a lizard on the road. The two boys set it on fire and watched it burn. That night, Villaseñor had nightmares of a giant lizard and a frog outside the window and woke up screaming. His father asked him if he had harmed lizards or frogs that day. When Villaseñor confessed, his father said that boys and men must respect all life and not kill for fun. He advised Villaseñor to ask God for forgiveness.

When Villaseñor returned to his room, he felt Jesus by his side. After praying, he saw a huge frog at the window, saying that it forgave him. Thinking of his grandmother, Villaseñor realized that the frog was his “Animal Spirit.” He dreamed of drawing a star and jumping into it to reach Heaven. In the morning, he woke up feeling as if he had “passed through the needle’s eye into manhood” (142).