Stranger Dreams

By: Gus Victoria

The ideal in sacred parchment

Of philosopher nobles

Served as fertile soil

Free of corruptible elements

To the child of centuries

Whose own ideal was stillborn

In an Iberian cradle.

Bellicose and proud was the glory

Of ancient histories

Unknown and unforgotten,

Bent to the future,

Malleable as heated gold,

Worth far more,

Heavier than the leaden skies

That draped the day,

An unknown stranger in his own land,

He walked with vision,

He hoped

And he loved,

Each step on the path he chose

Closer to discovering

That which was hidden at birth,

Felt near

And left untouched,

A force pulling him forward,

Confusing him to action,

Filling a head with dreams,

A mystic chord unbreakable

Binds him to his land,

A future unwritten

Makes him lift his pen,

To write not alone,

But with the voice of his people,

The cry of millions,

He writes words they speak,

He believes works they do,

He sees a future

To share with the world.

In Mexico is the future born.

In Mexico is the world welcome,

In Mexico the stranger is no more,

There he is finally home.

Walls

By: Gus Victoria

Walls,

Separate you from humanity,

The xenophobia born sick of paranoia

Kills the man you were

And the man he could be,

Your racist Minutemen march on,

Brain-dead clones of a system,

We step back and resort to vandalism,

The land you stole,

Polk’s boys came and rode,

Killed us then killed each other,

We lost to deed the land we stole first,

Blood rages at injustice

Remembering an ancient home,

An ancient home,

A distant Rome,

A fantasy bourne on tattered hopes,

That never was more than pride,

The walls you build

Isolate non but you,

The walls you build,

Always let ideas through,

Freedom cannot be barred,

No matter the fucks that stand guard,

Humanity cannot be murdered,

Only isolated by pride,

And dead by suicide.

Walls

Viva Mexico, Nuestra Madre

By: Gus Victoria

We dance today

For you,

We celebrate today

For you,

We are together today,

For you,

Five centuries you’ve been mother,

To lost children,

Five centuries you’ve been slave,

To lustful masters,

Five centuries you’ve cried tears of blood.

We rape your land,

We deny your past,

We destroy your future,

You are mother to us;

We praise you

As we deny you,

We idolize you,

As we forget,

We proclaim your beauty,

As we court foreign appeal,

Calmly you wait,

Quiet your strength,

Deep your resolve,

That someday

We, your children

Will take our inheritance,

And proudly proclaim your virtue,

As together in voice we call to you our mother,

Mexico! Mexico! Mexico!

Viva!

Indiana Gus - Mexican Adventure

By: Gus Victoria

There seems to be some bit of confusion as to my decision to soon go to Mexico. Let me, my friends, set the record straight as best I can. I indeed plan to leave soon. When the thought first occurred to me in the middle of last year I believed then that the trip would be a lengthy and potentially near-permanent move. Having been born there and with the majority of my family still residing there the pull is great. The desire to learn more about myself in the land of my birth was and is still nearly irresistible. Without a family to support and while I still have my health (for the most part) the time to go is now. I cannot delay this trip much longer. Its inevitability has been revealed to me in recent months. I will not be happy or feel myself on the right path if I do not take this trip soon. Beyond going, my expectations are few but my goals are many. I expect to learn as I complete those goals, but what I will learn or even how is up in the air. Mexico is a big place. The past there never dies and history is not forgotten.  Let me share a few things with you so you understand why I must go and what I plan on accomplishing while there. This blog will be updated prior to, during, and after the trip. So you can, in a way, join this journey with me.

Disney

Currently I work at Walt Disney World. It is murder to my artistic soul. The Disney product is great and the people I work with are quite wonderful. I owe much to the company and will never forget my time there as I have forged many lifelong friendships and more than one love. However, as great a company as it may be it is still a huge corporate entity and is therefore not a great home for truly free, artistic souls. We work to pay the bills and dabble in our art, whatever it may be, in our spare time. Spare time which, to make ends meet, slowly but steadily disappears. That may not be a consequence of a purely Disney problem but a wider societal problem I confess, but that it affects me is without doubt. I need to break those shackles of debt and (artistic) death while I am still able to. Add a family and children to support and my responsibilities makes those dreams of fulfilling my potential even more difficult to achieve. I’m not ready for that yet.

Right now I stand at a cross roads within the company. Concentrate, focus, and move up or leave. I choose to leave and follow my own dreams.

Mexico

Mexico is my birthplace. More than that, and forgive me, but I cannot make this sound unpretentious; Mexico is also my birthright. My family goes back nearly two decades here in the States, my entire life minus three years. In Mexico we are part of the tapestry of that nation. The name Victoria graces the very currency of the country and the other branches of the family are no less old or revered. There is the land that for centuries my forebears have called home.

I know it from stories and several trips throughout the years. I need more. I need to feel the magic of the land course through my veins and find its place on the page. As a writer, my inspiration is anchored by that immortal link to the land. I have a wonderful opportunity now to go and learn as I never have.

To travel the countryside for a bit and learn from the people that inhabit the small towns and the big city. To take pictures and steal words from the land and monuments erected over hundred and even thousands of years. To see in that mirror of time my own soul reflected and in that understood a bit more profoundly. Some stories will be collected and written down, others will take that reflection and knowledge and through the alchemy of the author be transformed into something worthwhile.

Hidden knowledge revealed.

The Family Business

Food. That is the immediate family business. My grandfather and uncles have restaurants and I wish to learn from their experience in starting one. Fret not friends! My restaurant eventually will find its way to Central Florida, but I need first to learn and perfect recipes. What better way to do that than in Mexico? I will learn how to make dishes native and common to Mexico. By the end of the year I hope my friends will be able to enjoy the fruits of this research. I am a perfectionist for what I am passionate about. Food, without doubt, is one of my top passions.

I’ll Be Back

This trip is not a one-way-never-see-you-again type of trip. Far from it. Too much of my life has taken root here in Florida for me to be prepared to move to another country yet, even if that country is Mexico. Its not an impossibility that I will someday make a home there, but not now, not yet. Too much to come back to right now.

Hope this clears things up a bit. As the time to leave approaches I’ll post links to where I will post articles, pictures, etc relating to the trip.

Eagle on Cactus

By : Gus Victoria

Eagle on a cactus in splendor arrayed,

Harbinger of a future bright

After a past darkened in crimson shade,

Eyes dark and round

Melt an iron heart

To a flameless light

That burns ever bright

In longing beats

For an ideal lost

On the waves of fortune

In the path fate laid,

As a trap to the thinking soul

That in hubris would attempt

An escape from its dealt destiny

That in utmost clarity

Is seen and known as wrong,

The heart blazed another

Even more daring trail

That would immune be from failure,

If only equal measure of faith be given

For that is the rub,

Faith is currency rare,

And cannot be substituted for countenance faire.

Axolotl

By: Gus Victoria

My little friend

You are Mexico,

You, more than the eagle

That flies high in our myths,

Mirror our country,

Indicting our actions,

Shaming us,

Your home once was the great Xochimilco,

Today it is a gutter of filth,

Once you swam in crystal pure waters,

Waters that today are a memory,

A distant memory we cherish,

A reality we forget,

Axolotl, my dear water-dog,

Or is death you proclaim?

We bleed as we fight,

You regenerate what you lose,

Would that we could,

We forget our roots,

You live in yours,

Would that we could remember ours,

We are both old and ancient,

Myth and history woven

Into a fabric unbreakable,

We both are dying in that quilt

Wrapped in pride,

Mexico slowly dies,

Axolotl you dear friend die as well,

While the eagle soars

We die.