Thirteen Senses Read online

  Dedication

  To Women of Substance this book is dedicated, to

  women who’ve put their hands on their hips like my

  mother and my grandmothers and taken up ground,

  saying this is my Sacred Piece of Mother Earth and

  from Here I will not be moved! From mi familia to

  your family, gracias, embrace the Stars!

  Contents

  DEDICATION

  PREFACE

  Part One

  WEDDING VOWS

  August 18,1979, Oceanside, California

  CHAPTER 1

  Such a man and woman aren’t measured from their heads to their feet, but from their heads to the sky, for these people are giants—who know the Thirteen Senses of Creation!

  Part Two

  HONEYMOON

  August 18,1929, Santa Ana, California

  CHAPTER 2

  And so he, the nineteenth child, having come to his mother at fifty years of age, now found his second truelove, and . . . they married.

  CHAPTER 3

  And so she, the child who’d been conceived on the night that a meteorite struck the Earth, was now a married woman and she was in love!

  Part Three

  MOONTALKING

  End of August 1929, Carlsbad, California

  CHAPTER 4

  And so they’d now entered into the Garden of Eden, God’s first couple—a man and a woman who of their own freewill chose the way of the Almighty!

  CHAPTER 5

  The Devil saw their happiness, their joy of being in Holy Union with the Almighty, and so he smiled, creeping down from the Tree of Knowledge to intercept them.

  Part Four

  SUNTALKING

  September 1929

  CHAPTER 6

  And so their mothers had, indeed, taught them both about Love and God, but it was now Life, la Vida, that was to teach them the lessons of el Diablo!

  CHAPTER 7

  And so shedding their outer skins, they now came to know each other as only young lovers can who’ve stepped forward in the full commitment of matrimony.

  Part Five

  LA VIDA LOCA

  CHAPTER 8

  And so the Gates of Heaven opened wide and a flash flood de AMOR came pouring forth out over all the land—BURSTING with VITALITY!

  CHAPTER 9

  The Devil was tired, really exhausted, but still he was a long way from giving up. One way or another, he was determined to slip past that old She-Fox . . . but then he heard the Singing of the Stones!

  CHAPTER 10

  LOVE was in the Air! Amor was Everywhere! The Wilds of Life, la Vida, were now leaping with the FIRES of HELL and HEAVEN Here upon MOTHER EARTH!

  CHAPTER 11

  HEAVEN was laughing con carcajadas! Love, love, AMOR was now Creating a whole new PARAISO on EARTH as it was in HEAVEN!

  Part Six

  HEAVENTALKING

  CHAPTER 12

  And so Humanity was now being called upon to Sing and Dance and Praise the SECOND COMING of the LORD!

  CHAPTER 13

  The Devil himself had now come Full Circle and he, too, was anxiously awaiting with Flowers in Hand for the SECOND COMING of the LORD!

  Part Seven

  EARTHTALKING

  CHAPTER l4

  GOD was Happy! PAPITO was Smiling! Singing “through” every Stone, Tree, Raindrop, Blade of Grass—HE was SO MOVED!

  CHAPTER 15

  LIGHTNING flashed across the land and THUNDER roared through the canyons with the HOLY VOICE of CREATION!

  CHAPTER l6

  The DEVIL was Whirling, Swirling, Dancing—he was so HAPPY! He was still working the Earth, giving choice between Good and Evil, but Now each Night he, too, went to be with PAPITO DIOS!

  Part Eight

  ILLUMINATION

  CHAPTER 17

  GOD was Whirling, Swirling, Dancing! His Children were finally Awaking to the Light and Loving each other as much as they LOVED HIM!

  CHAPTER l8

  And so Adam and Eva stepped forward, not blaming each other but united in Love, Respect, and a Natural Awe for One another—REFLECTIONS of the CREATOR.

  CHAPTER 19

  Of their own Freewill Adam and Eva now chose to go out of the Garden, away from their familias, and into the Wilds of the World—for they had absolute Faith in GOD and in their AMOR!

  Part Nine

  REBIRTHING

  CHAPTER 20

  In the Wilds beyond the Garden, Adam and Eva now found themselves bringing the Light of God to friend and foe alike— Lucifer and Papito were Working as One once again!

  CHAPTER 21

  They ‘d met Death and they’d found Death to simply be another Holy Opening to the Creator’s Corazón—Beat, BEAT, BEATING throughout the UNIVERSE!

  CHAPTER 22

  Adam and Eva now both Knew that it wasn’t the Devil who’d ever tempted them—it was their own Mirror that Reflected their Doubts and Fears.

  CHAPTER 23

  GOD and Lucifer were Dancing and Mary and Jesus were Clapping—all the Forces of the Heavens were at last working Together once more.

  CHAPTER 24

  The SIXTH SUN was now arising fast for an All New Day. People would no longer be able to tell where the Heavens ended and the Earth began.

  CHAPTER 25

  All was back in Balance, All was back in Harmony and at Peace, generating Wisdom through our Thirteen Senses from HEAVEN to EARTH—ALL ONE SONG!

  AFTERWORD

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ALSO BY VICTOR VILLASEÑOR

  COPYRIGHT

  ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

  Preface

  THROUGHOUT THE AGES, tales have been passed down within families, keeping intact oral histories that weld one generation to the next. This is my family’s tale of love, adversity, magic, and wonderment.

  Growing up, I was told by my father time and again that a good story could save our life. Then he’d explain to me how he and his sisters had been dying of thirst and hunger as they made their way north from Mexico to the United States during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. “We were ready to lay down and die,” my father told me. “Cannons were blasting all around us. People were screaming and dying. The creeks ran red with blood, but then when the sun went down, your grandmother would brush the snakes and scorpions out of the way with some brush and fix a place for us to sleep for the night. She’d give us a smooth little rock to suck on if we had nothing to eat, and she’d tell us stories about the stars, the moon, the she-fox, and soon we’d forget our hunger and we’d be traveling with her words through a world of wonder.

  “God was with us. He was our best friend and He was smiling to us with the stars and the moon, and little by little all our troubles of the day would disappear.”

  My father, a big strong man from los Altos de Jalisco, would cry and cry and tell me that his mother, a little old bag of Indian bones, knew a life that few people knew—a life so full of the Holy Breath of the Almighty that no one could ever lose hope. My father told me that they’d go to sleep there in the rocks and dirt, feeling full of hope and love and the complete understanding that tomorrow would be another gift straight from God, and so all would then be possible no matter how harsh their day had been—for life was a dream to live, not a reality to fear.

  This, then, is a history of a people—a tribal heritage, if you will—of my Indian-European ancestors as handed down to me by my father and mother, my aunts and uncles, my cousins and family friends.

  Back at one time, we were all Indigenous People, and the time has come to circle back to when the Mother Earth was young, the Heavens spoke, and people listened.

  Like my grandmother used to say, there are no strangers, once we get to know each
other’s story. Enjoy. Gracias. Thank you.

  Victor E. Villaseñor

  Rancho Villaseñor

  Oceanside, California

  Spring 2001

  Part One

  WEDDING

  VOWS

  August 18,1979

  Oceanside, California

  1

  Such a man and woman aren’t measured from their heads to their feet, but from their heads to the sky, for these people are giants—who know the Thirteen Senses of Creation!

  WAS IT LOVE?

  Had it ever really been love?

  For fifty years they’d been husband and wife. For fifty years the Father Sun had come and gone. For fifty years the Mother Moon had risen and disappeared. For fifty years they’d loved, fought, and lived together, and now, here they were standing before the priest once again, ready to renew their wedding vows.

  Juan Salvador Villaseñor, the nineteenth child of his family, was seventy-five years old. Maria Guadalupe Gomez, the eighth child of her family, was sixty-eight years old. Salvador now turned and took the hand of the woman standing beside him. Lupe turned and looked into Salvador’s eyes.

  The priest began his words, and Salvador and Lupe’s children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren looked on with love, respect, and gusto. It was a small wedding this time with just family and a few friends, being done in the living room of the great house that Salvador and Lupe had designed and built nearly thirty-five years before.

  Sunlight streamed in through the large windows behind Salvador and Lupe as the priest continued his words. People’s eyes filled with tears. This was a magic moment, where everyone in the room just knew that God’s blessing was with them.

  The groom was dressed in his favorite dark maroon suit with a striped tie of silver and gold. The bride was wearing a beautiful three-quarter-length white dress with intricate lace and interwoven ribbon of yellow gold. Salvador’s hair was white and full and still curly. Lupe’s hair was mostly gray, too, yet sprinkled with beautiful long strands of black.

  The priest continued, and the small gathering of family and friends listened to every word. This time, different from last time, the priest was much younger than the couple getting married. “Juan Salvador Villaseñor,” the young priest was now saying, “do you take Maria Guadalupe Gomez to be your wife? Do you promise to be true to her in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and honor all the days of your life?”

  Lupe turned and stared at Salvador’s lion mane of hair and the huge, long, white moustache on his upper lip. It moved like a fat worm as he spoke. “Yes, I do,” he said.

  Hearing this, she realized how different these words now felt compared to last time. When she’d heard these words fifty years before, she’d been so young and naïve that she’d taken his “Yes, I do” to mean so much more than she did this time. Last time, she’d thought these words meant that she would have someone with her through good times, bad times, sickness, health, and there would always be love and honor. What a fool she’d been! If the truth were known, sometimes she would’ve been better off without him.

  Then, she realized that the young priest was speaking to her. “And you, Maria Guadalupe Gomez,” said the young man of God, “do you take Juan Salvador Villaseñor to be your husband? Do you promise to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love him and honor him all the days of your life?”

  At first Lupe didn’t answer. My God, this was exactly what she’d done for all these years. But had he? Had Salvador been true to her and honored her? Or, had he ever really even loved her?

  Then she suddenly remembered how these words “in bad times” had almost stopped her last time. Even back then, when she’d been eighteen years old, she’d wondered if it was wise for any woman to agree to this statement.

  “Say, ‘yes, I do,’” said the young priest, leaning in close to Lupe.

  Lupe almost laughed. This was exactly what the priest had done last time. Only then the priest had been old, and he’d looked so full of authority that she’d been intimidated. But she wasn’t intimidated in the least this time, and so she just looked at this young priest and smiled.

  Juan Salvador saw her smile, that little smile of hers that was so full of mischief. He grinned, squeezing her hand.

  Feeling her hand being squeezed, Lupe turned and looked at this gray-haired, old man standing beside her, and she saw his grin. She grinned, too.

  “Okay,” she said, squeezing his hand in return. “Yes, I do.”

  Everyone in the room looked greatly relieved, except Salvador. He’d never had any doubt.

  Then it was Lupe’s turn to repeat the words of holy acceptance, but when she came to the passage, “To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part,” tears came to her eyes. After fifty years of marriage, she could now see that these were the very words that had given her the power to endure all the hardships of the years.

  Why, these words “until death do us part” were the very foundation of every marriage. And she could also see that yes, even back then, fifty years ago, she’d had the wisdom to see that these were the words that had given her beloved mother, Doña Guadalupe, the strength to rise up like a mighty star and bring her familia back from the dead, time and again during that awful Mexican Revolution!

  She could now see so clearly that these words “until death do us part” were the words that gave each and every woman the power, the vision to accept the Grace of God and gain the absolute conviction of mind that she and her family would survive—no matter what—just as her beloved mother-in-law, Doña Margarita, had so well explained to her only days before their first wedding back in 1929.

  Lupe now understood very clearly that these words were the secret with which every ordinary woman became extraordinary, giving her the wisdom and confidence within herself to rise up like a mighty eagle and see her family through their darkest of hours of life, la vida.

  Tears streamed down Lupe’s face just as they’d streamed down her face fifty years ago at their first wedding, which had taken place up the coast in Santa Ana, California, at the Holy Catholic Church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on Third Street and Grand. The whole barrios of Corona and Santa Ana had attended that wedding. Archie Freeman had barbecued a whole steer. Fifty chickens had been cooked in salsa de mole by Lupe’s familia. Salvador had paid for Lupe’s wedding dress, her sister Carlota’s maid of honor dress, and the yards and yards of material for other maids’ of honor dresses, too. It had been a celebration that had lasted for three days. People had come from Mexico and all over the Southland.

  Lupe couldn’t stop crying. She and this gray-haired old man standing beside her had seen so much life together, so much suffering and turmoil, and, also, so much joy and wild adventure.

  A big part of her now loved Salvador more than ever before, because she’d been with him for more years than she’d been with anyone. Why, she’d only been with her own parents the first eighteen years of her life.

  And yet, even though this was true, there was still another part of her that despised him. He’d broken her heart time and again. It was sometimes hard for her to even just look at him, if she let her mind go racing off into all the terrible situations that he’d put her through.

  Then it was time for them to exchange rings, but this time they were only adding a simple gold band to their original wedding rings.

  And once more—she couldn’t believe it—the priest had Salvador say “to love and cherish for the rest of their lives,” but then, when he turned to her, he said for her to say “to love, cherish, and obey.”

  Lupe’s heart stopped. “Oh, no,” said Lupe, startling the young priest. “I will not say obey! How dare you!”

  “But you must, if you want to—”

  “I must,” she said. “I must! And he doesn’t have to! Oh, no, you don’t! You don’t talk to me like this after fifty y
ears of marriage, and I now knowing what I know!”

  “Good for you, Lupe!” said Carlota, Lupe’s older sister, who was sitting with Lupe’s children and grandchildren. “He was no good when you married him the first time, and he’s still no good today!”

  “Keep quiet, Carlota!” said Lupe, turning on her sister, who was wearing a black lace dress and a large blond wig and white powder on her dark, wide Indian face. “This is my wedding, not yours, and I will speak for myself.”

  “I was only trying to help,” said Carlota, who had been married to Archie Freeman, but they’d never had any kids, and so she considered Lupe’s children like her own.

  Lupe turned back to her husband. Smiling, she soothed Salvador’s hand, reassuring him that everything was all right. Then she turned to the priest and said, “Father, I will not say ‘obey’ and not have him say ‘obey’, too.” She spoke calmly. “What do you think marriage is, a beautiful little ceremony and then everything is wonderful thereafter? Marriage is—”

  “Hell!” shouted Carlota, cutting in once again.

  “Carrrrr-lota!” said Lupe, rolling the “r” of her sister’s name with its full Spanish sounding power. “You will leave the room if you can’t keep still.”

  Carlota began to cry. “Oh, I’m sorry, Lupe,” she said. “It’s just that all his life, Salvador has been a no-good, lying—”

  “Carlota, ‘quiet,’ means ‘quiet!’” snapped Lupe. “In the name of God please keep quiet! And you,” she said, now turning back to the priest once again, “as I said, I will not say ‘obey’ and you will not tell me what I must or mustn’t do, do you hear me?”

  The young priest didn’t know what to do.

  “I will say ‘love and cherish,’ just like my husband said,” continued Lupe, “but I will not say another word.”

  “Well, yes,” said the priest, trying to accommodate, “but I don’t know if this is acceptable, unless Salvador is in agreement to this.”