Book Three – Forgiveness

Villasenor, V. (2004). Burro Genius. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

Victor, 14, standing in front of a portrait
 of his brother  Joseph, 1964.

In the beginning of Book 3, Victor is so angry. He has just lost his brother, Joseph, and Victor is convinced he is the one that should have died. Joseph was the smart son who could have been a lawyer and Victor believed he was the dumb one. He continued to struggle with reading, and writing throughout the rest of his education. Victor attended a couple of Catholic schools before being enrolled in the Military Academy Joseph attended. Captain Moses was Victor's teacher. He constantly compared Victor to Joseph, shoving it in his face that he would never live up to Joseph's reputation. Captain Moses was very cruel and consistently decraded Victory, pretty much giving the entire class free reign to bully him. Victor was so angry he would daydream about getting a gun and shooting his past teachers and especially Captain Moses. On the day Victor plans to kill them, he runs home to get his gun and overhears his parents arguing like never before.

Apparently, an article had been published about the doctor responsible for Joseph's death. The doctor had been caught drunk at the hospital, and was being blamed for the death of numerous other patients. But now, he, himself was dying. Victor's father, Salvador, was trying to convince his mother, Lupe, that they needed to visit the doctor and forgive him. He tells Lube "this isn't just about forgiving him. It's a way to bring all this anger out of our bodies that we've been carrying in our hearts all these years" and ask her "How can we expect God to forgive us, if we can't forgive others?" (p 306) Lupe refused to forgive the doctor for the death of her 16 year old son, and was fighting against Salvador going to do do it. Victor completely agreed with his mother, but he decides to follow his father to the doctors home. He can't believe his father can really forgive him.

When Victor gets there, he sees his father talking to the doctor. They are just making small talk, but he can see, by the look on the doctors face, how grateful he is that Salvador has come and by coming, forgiven him. The doctor just looked like a sad old man. Victor becomes confused about his own feelings. Is he so angry about the past that he can't live and love in the present? Instead of going to shoot Captain Moses, Victor heads to the beach to clear his head and pray to his brother. Victor begins to try and forgive Captain Moses and all those teachers that tortured him all his life, after remembering one of the last things Joseph ever told him, "What the world really needed was so simple – patience, love, compassion, forgiveness and understanding," (p 309) 

Even though this all happened in the 1950's, I believe it still holds true today. If we could all be a little more patient, compassionate and forgiving, this world would be so much better. As a teacher, I am going to do my best to remember something Victor's grandmother use to tell him, "children truly are our latest messengers from God, and each is unique and wonderfully brilliant already." (p 316)