Crazy Loco Love (Paperback)

Growing up on his parents’ ranch in North San Diego County, Victor Villaseñor’s teenage years were marked by a painful quest to find a place for himself in the world. Discriminated against due to his Mexican heritage, Victor questions the tenets of his faith and the restrictions it places on his own spirituality and sexuality. Ultimately, his search for identity takes him to Mexico to learn of his family’s roots, where he soon discovers that his heritage doesn’t determine his intelligence or success.

Through this often humorous and poignant tale, Victor deftly undermines the macho stereotype so often associated with Latinos, while exposing the tender vulnerability and naïveté of a young man grappling with the roles foisted on him by the church and society. Victor’s youthful misadventures elicit sympathy, laughter, and tears, as he attempts to divine the mysteries of the opposite sex in this powerful, revealing memoir.

• Publication date: 01/01/2011
• Pages: 416
• Publisher: Beyond Words/ Atria
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9781582702728
• Dimensions: 5 1/2 x 8 7/16
• Categories: Spiritual Lifestyles, Global Native Wisdom

• Crazy Loco Love solidifies Villaseñor's status as an enchanting Mexican American storyteller.

  —San Antonio Express

• One of the strengths of Victor Villaseñor's memoir Crazy Loco Love is that, even as he approaches the age of 70, the author can vividly conjure up the exuberance and vitality of being a teen 1950s and 60s Southern California. Reading his book feels like being transported into the private, passionately scrawled notebooks of the author's untutored early self.

  —Adam Langer, The Washington Post

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  Victor Villaseñor

  Victor Villaseñor is a writer whose works have brought Mexican-American culture and literature to a wide audience. Born in the barrio of Carlsbad, California in 1940, Victor was raised on a ranch four miles north in Oceanside. Since his parents were born in Mexico, Victor spoke only Spanish at home until he began school. After years of facing language and cultural barriers, heavy discrimination and a reading disability, later diagnosed as dyslexia. Victor dropped out of high school during his junior year in high school and moved to Mexico. There he discovered a wealth of Mexican art, literature, and music that helped him recapture and understand the dignity and richness of his heritage.

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