Victor Quiroz: Terwilliger Plaza Member
Victor Quiroz
Terwilliger Plaza Member
You’re a true Angeleno, raised in the City of East LA.
I was born in 1948 and raised in East Los Angeles. I lived in Los Angeles for 72 years before moving to Portland.
You learned many lessons beginning at a young age.
My parents had a strong influence on who I am today. My dad was born in 1907, and my mother was born in 1912. She came down from Oklahoma with a friend and met my dad in El Paso, TX. This was in the 30’s during the Great Depression. They eventually moved from Texas to Los Angeles.
My father was Spanish and Portuguese. His grandfather came to Mexico with his family sometime in the 1870’s. There is Indigenous North American ancestry and African ancestry which came through my grandmother. My mother was Irish, Scottish and Welsh. My father was distinctly Mexican. And my mother was very definitely White. I’m also a bit Ashkenazi Jew, but I don’t know from which side of my family tree.
Their experiences as a couple, in turn, informed how they raised me. They didn’t want me to be judged or characterized by my ethnicities, and instead, by who I was. They wanted to provide opportunities for me that might have been considered outside the norm at the time, and not to be shunned by anyone.
One of these opportunities was education.
I’ve always had a flame for knowledge. My dad taught me to read at four years old. My parents sent me to a Catholic grammar school and then, Loyola High School, a Jesuit school. Often referred to in their early days as “God’s soldiers,” Jesuits became known over a period of time as both radically conversative and radically liberal. To me, I was being taught religion while at the same time being taught how to think. And once you begin to think, you start to question.
Parallel to education was a strong work ethic with a family focus.
When my father was 13 he quit school to support the family so his mother wouldn’t have to clean other people’s houses. He was that kind of person. He instilled in me more by action than words that if something is important for you or your family that you do whatever you need to do, ethically and legally to take care of them. Also, while they never put this into exact words, my parents taught me to live below my means. And in the process of doing so, it meant doing things to make sure that there was always enough to take care of your family. These early lessons informed my life.
And so it began, your first job at ten years old mowing lawns.
From ten years old through my teenage years, I always had a job on the weekends and during the summer. When I was 18, I was working as a valet in Beverly Hills with a partial scholarship to USC, married my first wife in early 1967, and then nine months later had a son.
This is when you crashed the Corvette.
I was working at a hotel on Wilshire Boulevard and the owner had twins. When they turned 16 he bought them identical Corvettes. One night the boy came in and parked it in the exit area which was blocking all the traffic. I got in the car. I was in a hurry and the seat was pulled up tight because he was shorter than I was. I turned the car on, put it in reverse, and the car, an automatic with a high-revving engine began backing up on its own. As I went to slam on the brake my foot slipped off and hit the accelerator. So yes, I crashed a six-week-old Corvette into a very large concrete pillar.
Did this end your valet parking career?
I kept my job until I was able to pay off the repairs and then went to work for the Post Office. I was in the first part of my freshman year at USC. I intended to be a poli sci major to become a lawyer and work in the diplomatic corps or politics. Providing for my family however took priority and those plans disappeared. I began working a variety of jobs which eventually led me to a long career working in manufacturing as a manufacturing manager and then 30 years in sales.
You skipped over your 15 seconds of fame on an episode of the TV series, Ironside.
The one true love of my life was to be an actor. I had been in a play, and through the producer got a connection to the Ironside production. It was a segment about a Chicano gang. I was cast as one of the gang members. After that, I was in some plays at the Odessey Theater in LA. I had to make a choice though. You can’t feed your family and be an actor. It was my choice and responsibility to have a family early, and I knew I couldn’t do acting forever. The choice was always going to be my family.
The education part never went away.
My education at Loyola opened my eyes to many things. I realized a few years ago that I have been on a spiritual journey since I was born, even though I didn’t realize it. We as human beings are trying to grasp the meaning of who we are individually, as well as collectively. Some, and myself included, don’t really believe in a corporeal or an ethereal (not spiritual being), although I do believe that I am part of that same tradition and search for knowledge to understand why we are here and what we do with our knowledge.
All of this information that was created about a God going back Millennia. I acknowledge some consciousness that says there has to be something greater than me for this all to work.
However, I can’t prove to someone that God doesn’t exist, and they can’t prove to me that God does exist. I call myself an Atheist who is not trying to change anyone’s religious or spiritual outlook because I don’t think that type of God exists as exemplified by particular religions. But there are a lot of important lessons to pull from those teachings. The bottom line is that we are all searching that belief for the same thing, we just call it by different names. What we call it doesn’t matter.
What brought you to Portland?
For the last thirty years of my working life, I worked in sales for a large printing company. While I was based in Los Angeles, the company was based in Portland. I travelled up to Portland about six times a year, often with clients to be on press checks with their projects. One time my wife came up with me and as soon as she got off the plane, she said, “when are we going to move here?” I replied, “when I retire.” We moved into Terwilliger Plaza five years ago.
Why Terwilliger Plaza?
We had looked at a number of places. As much as I love the outdoors, I was born with concrete in my veins and proximity to arts and culture. We wanted a place that was close to downtown if possible, access to Portland State University and also people that were like minded. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to agree with me. But enough to be willing to have an intelligent, reasonable, emotional, spirited discussion. The community here is a bit like going back to my high school years. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, and well-traveled people who have subject matter and capability – physically, mentally, and spiritually. And like with the Inquiring Mind, a place to be able to learn and to grow.
You are co-chair of the Inquiring Mind?
I handle the advertising and scheduling for The Inquiring Mind which is essentially a resident Member led philosophically based group here at Terwilliger Plaza whose discussions go from Ancient Greeks and Romans, all the way through the Middle Ages, and modern thinkers. We also explore topics that might show up in Western philosophy such as writings from an Islamic philosopher. It engages that intellectual stimulation that I crave.
One thing I understand – an old cliché – if you don’t use it, you lose it. I know that I will never understand everything to know in the universe. I don’t have enough grounding in mathematics to understand the complexities of it. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t allow my mind to free float in the universe to learn something new.
Free floating is a lovely phrase. Learning and unlocking – in chaos and ambiguity.
I often say it aloud, if I don’t have knowledge in this area I’m going to ask questions that may on the surface seem foolish. The one thing I’ve always understood is that ignorance can be solved with education. In order to understand, I often need to ask non sensical questions. I try to go in the opposite direction to pare down, to synthesize the kernel of information that is important to discover how that relates to other aspects of life and the universe.
Do you have a core anchor, or has it evolved over the years?
Nature versus nurture is what I believe. We need to have an anchor in our life. No matter how we may get there. At a certain point in my life, I discovered I needed to set a course in my life for what is important, which for me is to be a decent human being. And there are times just like sailing where you are going to have to tack in another direction because the wind is changing. It’s okay that you have to make minor course corrections. The goal is to make it to safe harbor with integrity and, if you can, to bring some people with you along the way.
Your approach to knowledge also takes on a creative edge.
My dad taught me how to be creative. When we were kids, we would draw these hardline images. I remember when I was five years old he said, “what you might consider doing is starting off with just light strokes first. That way if you need to erase it, it won’t show up as much and you won’t be as frustrated. Then once you get to the point where you see what is taking shape, you can go back and do the hardlines.” I didn’t know it at the time, but he was teaching me editing, shape and form.
Life lessons in hindsight often provide clarity.
My current wife and I have been together for 42 years. Recent life circumstances had me reengage my spiritual journey which has led to introspection. I try not to make things more than they are – it’s a knowledge quest.
I have learned to engage and if I don’t know something, I’m going to stretch for it. If I fall on my face, hopefully I’ll learn from it. I have made a mistake every day of my life. But I’ve also learned that what is equally important to the answer is asking the right question. It's through those mistakes that we evolve our thinking.
I’ve also learned to embrace and follow my NorthStar to guide me no matter what. Not to the exclusion of other people or family, but if you give that up that inner clarity and direction you’ve already lost before you’ve begun.
And that is life, the experiences and the journey.