About Victor Vasquez

Victor Vasquez was born in 1949 into a family of migrant workers from Eagle Pass, Texas. As a child, he was grounded in the lifestyle of Northern Mexico in communities such as Piedras Negras, Monterey, and Saltillo. He learned the ancient lore of his people while gathering around campfires in the evenings with his family and traveling the West and Pacific Northwest harvesting crops. He juxtaposed these experiences against life in Oregon, where he attended his first school and where his father eventually settled the family and enrolled Victor in a predominantly White elementary school.

Integrating into English-only academics was a struggle, and integrating into an unfamiliar culture was even more challenging. Poverty, prejudice, an absent mother, an overworked father, and dependent siblings had Victor working odd jobs from an early age to help support the family. A stint in junior high with a committed art teacher and high school sports helped counterbalance a rebellious streak as he made his way toward graduation, only to be told by a school counselor that he was not “college material.” He recalls being told that he might consider trade school and becoming a mechanic.

Victor proved the school counselor wrong by enrolling in Blue Mountain Community College, enlisting, and serving honorably in the Army as his father and uncles had, and graduating from the University of Oregon. He earned a master’s degree at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and, over the span of thirty years, became a public servant serving two presidential administrations. He worked his way up from writing briefing books for the White House to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Office of the Secretary and Deputy Under Secretary in Rural Development for the Department of Agriculture. His focus was fighting poverty across the country, supporting rural communities in the Mississippi Delta, the Appalachia region that provided energy needs for decades and was later abandoned, and the Southwest border region—his place of origin where over two-thirds of the Latinos in the U.S. reside, as well as the Native American community that is often forgotten.

Today, Victor studies the roots of his lineage and prophecies stretching back to Aztec rule. Within his autofiction, A Fly In The Milk (Una Mosca En La Leche), he shares original poetry and ponders the state of humanity, wondering when his ancient people will finally be called home.