Familia: A Bumpy Winding Road

By DP Villacis

Guillo was a man who never accepted “You can’t do that.” He left his country, his family, and a comfortable lifestyle to make opportunities in a new world. He couldn’t speak the language, but he kept forging ahead based on merit and perseverance. Guillo was a man who never stopped learning and improvising. He was the first to accomplish several feats in the state he accidentally chose to live in. In the end, life has many bumps and turns as we each work to improve the lives of others through unexpected accidents and twists leading us down the road to happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888327654

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Familia

A Bumpy Winding Road

DP Villacis

ISBN 979-8-88832-764-7 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-765-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by DP Villacis

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Papito Mein

Chapter 2

Little Boys

Chapter 3

Diplomat & Family

Chapter 4

Conscription

Chapter 5

University

Chapter 6

Off to the USA

Chapter 7

Time to Start Family

Chapter 8

Bring Mama & Papa to Visit

Chapter 9

New Neighbor

Chapter 10

Last Tinaca

Chapter 11

Growing Up

Chapter 12

Over the Years

Appendix

About the Author

Preface

Okay, here's my premise: When you record a man's life on paper, he cannot be forgotten. I have stored this and many small reminders in the treasure chest his father sent to us decades ago.

I'm going to tell you many stories about the love of my life and your abuelito, Guillermo Villacis. In Spanish, the word for grandpa is abuelito. He had the best smile and the most optimism for life. Grandpa Guillo was the most sincere, intelligent, and honest man I have known. He always said he grew up surrounded by strong family values of his mother, father, grandparents, aunts, and uncles reinforced by the church. He saw how they lived and knew he could comfortably ask absolutely any question to a member of the family. To this day, the Villacis family is open about every topic. No such thing as embarrassing.

I have to tell you that Grandpa Guillo was not born in the United States. He was born in Quito, Ecuador, South America. Where is that? The country, Ecuador, is located next to the Pacific Ocean right in the middle of the world between the magnetic poles, south and north. His hometown, Quito, is about fifteen miles south of the exact center latitude of the world called the equator. Here is an interesting fact about science. The equator is the imaginary line where the different magnetic poles take control. Quito is south, so the bathtub water swirls counterclockwise to drain. We live north of the equator, so our bathtub water swirls clockwise to drain. His hometown, Quito, sits high in the Andes mountains, 9,300 feet above sea level with taller mountain peaks and volcanoes surrounding the city. The higher you live above sea level, the less oxygen is in the air to breathe. Many visitors to Quito become dizzy and tired from reduced oxygen.

Grandpa Guillo was born on May 13, 1935. He was the youngest son of Ernesto Villacis Chavez and Lola Villacis Velez. The family came to South America from Spain. The native people of Ecuador are the Incans and the tribes they conquered. In the 1400 and 1500s, the Incans conquered many tribes and immediately moved each newly captured tribe to a different town to prevent an uprising against them. War tensions were always strong. The Incans ruled over eight hundred miles running north and south on the Andes mountain chain for one hundred years until the Spanish invaded. Guillo told me the Villacis family was from the Village of Assisi in Spain. How did the family come to Ecuador? That is a story in itself.

Spanish Conquistador Pizarro arrived on the Pacific coast of South American shores in 1532. He was told of riches to be found in the interior. Without verifying there was any treasure, Pizarro quickly sailed back to Spain to gain the crown's approval and money for more ships, soldiers, guns, and horses. He returned in 1534 and advanced quickly through the jungle interior until he arrived at the Incan emperor's regional headquarters in Peru and asked for a meeting. The meeting was arranged at the emperor's palace. Instead of the peaceful meeting Pizarro had requested, he attacked, killing the emperor and all his guards.

The Incans were afraid and in awe of the horse/man soldiers and their guns. But remember, the Incans had a well-organized government that ruled the Andes mountains. An Incan warrior general led the resistance against the Spanish for two years attacking the Spanish in the Andes. Spanish troops had to fight towns located hundreds of miles along the mountain ridge. The Spanish army was large and kept moving forward and attacking. Finally, in desperation to stop the Spanish army, the Incan general attacked his own Incan capital city, Quito, Ecuador. He destroyed buildings in an attempt to stop the Spanish. The Incan warrior general led the brutal attack and was killed by the Spanish army in Quito. The Spanish then ruled the Pacific side of South America. The Spanish set up their own government and enslaved the natives. More and more Spaniards arrived to colonize and claim the treasures. The Spanish government collected taxes on all the treasures looted.

This is when the name Villacis appeared in Ecuador. Francisco de Villacis was a Spanish commissioner to the crown assigned to Quito, Ecuador. He flourished in recording the gold, silver, precious stones, and crops taken from the Indians to be shipped back to Spain. His wealth allowed him to build a chapel for the Catholic church of San Francisco in Quito. The church rewarded him with a title and the right to place his tomb effigy in the chapel. The chapel was dedicated in 1661 and still holds the tomb effigy.

Tomb

Chapter 1

Papito Mein

Military picture of Ernesto/Benjamin/Luis 1927

The family story I am telling is of possible descendants of Francisco de Villacis. I only have family records of Grandpa Guillo's family dating to the mid-1800s. What I know firsthand is Grandpa Guillo left all of his family and Quito to immigrate to the United States. Maybe there are parallel similarities to Francisco's departure from Spain. Grandpa knew there were more opportunities in the United States. He