Thirteen Senses by Victor Villaseñor
Now, I’d like to give thanks to René Alegria, my editor, who had the guts to buy Thirteen. This genius of an editor of HarperCollins (who’d been raised by his grandparents in Tucson, Arizona, and is of my own culture) had the tanates to drink red wine and work with me through five months of editing. Thank you, Rene, you are a great editor. Gracias!
And I’d like to thank Juanita Kramer-Hermoza for coming into my life with such flair and dance, teaching me the word delicioso in an all-new way, saying, “Isn’t this just a delicious day!” and then smile with such gusto at the end of a long, hard day of teaching third grade and still want to go dancing that night. Thank you, Juanita, mi esposa, for all your love and support.
Also, thank you very much, my baby sister, Teresita, for supporting me with love and wedding rings and information about our life with mama and papa. Thank you, Tencha, my older sister with the wealth of information and photos that you have so generously given to me to help capture the mood of this book. And thank you, Gorjenna, for being the wild person you are, and your husband, Big Gary. Thank you, RoseAna, for being the loving person you are, and your husband, Jay. Thank you, Joe Colombo. Thank you, Teri, Joseph and Lyn, John, Kimberly, Skeeter and Alicia, Bryon, Billy and Stacy, Jason and Kady, Little Gary, Bill and Charlene, Erik, Lorraine and Greg. Thank you, Andres and Shannon, Jacinto, Diego, Melissa, Jessica, Callie, Adam Ray, Nicholas, Sara, Miguel, Madeline, Carlitos, Nina, Pablito, MacKenzie, Tyler, Trent, and all you others of nuestra familia that I might have missed at this moment, but will remember within the hour.
We are all familia, we are all God’s children—Together Forever!
And of course, thanks to all of Tia Maria’s children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And thanks to Luisa’s and Sophia’s and Victoriano’s and Domingo’s, who are spread all over Arizona and Texas on both sides of the border and we really don’t know who you are—like Dale, who just showed up at the rancho with his wife and kids last month and is a great-grandson of Sophia, who’d been adopted and found us after reading Rain of Gold. Gracias! There’s no way that this book could’ve been realized without All of You!
And last but not least, I’d like to give a very special thanks to Gary Cosay and Chuck Scott, who’ve been with me more than twenty years, as my agent and lawyer. Thanks for the faith and perseverance. We’ve done it and are still doing it—adelante!
ALSO BY
VICTOR VILLASEÑOR
FICTION
Macho!
NONFICTION
Jury: People vs. Juan Corona
Rain of Gold
Walking Stars
Snow Goose: Global Thanksgiving
Wild Steps of Heaven
SCREENPLAYS
Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
Burro Genius
Copyright
THIRTEEN SENSES. Copyright © 2001 by Victor Villaseñor. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 0-06-621077-1
EPub Edition September 2013 ISBN 9780061753923
01 02 03 04 05 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Victor Villaseñor, Thirteen Senses