Victor Villarreal

Victor Villareal

Nov 1, 1930  -  Jan 18, 1994

 Victor was one of my very best friends.  I don't know how many times, I was without a place to live.  Never once did he turn me away from his door!

I first met Victor when Bill Sandlin brought me up to his house, in the Montclair Hills.  It was a magical place, and there was always music, and people there.  Victor was a window trimmer at Smiths, a mens store in downtown Oakland.  He was also a very good artist.  He lived in that house in the hills for many years.  I lived there from time to time over the years with him and his partner Dave Hoffmann.  I introduced them unwittingly.  I was dating Dave, and one day brought him with me to Victors house.  Well, that was the end of one relationship, and the beginning of another.  David was Victors partner up until the end.

Of course there was a short time, when I was not happy with Victor.  I called him a few bad names, but got over it.  I realized he was way too good of a friend, to lose over someone I was only dating.  It was only shortly after they became lovers, that I moved in. I was never made to feel, like a third wheel. By that time I was over it.  Victor and I had our differences. I didn't always like his artwork, although I always asked his advice on  my own!  He was a homebody, I wasn't.  He once told me " I could live anywhere.  I make any place my home".  I was just the opposite, and still am.  I cannot live somewhere that I don't particularly like.   I have to like what is outside my window.  Vic on the other hand, created his spaces.  I still remember that house in the hills, with it's big overstuffed cushions.

It was eclecticism to the extreme.  He had Mexican furniture mixed with Moroccan rugs and lamps, and lots of houseplants.  He had a green thumb as well.  Somehow it all came together in a magical way.  You just felt comfortable there!

In the  eighties, Vic and Dave opened a gallery in  Emeryville. " The Hoffmann Gallery" , displayed much of Victors artwork.  It was also their home.  It was so much different than that little house in the hills.  That house burned in the Berkeley Hills fire in 1993.  All that remained of it was it's chimney.  The gallery was a good sized loft.  It had a second level , that was their living space.  The kitchen and laundry were on the first level, in the rear.

Vic and Dave lived here up until the early nineties.  David got wanderlust, and moved to San Francisco.  Vic I think, felt part of his life was gone.  I was living by now, in Florida, so only talked now and then by phone.  The last time I saw Vic was in 1995.  He had a young friend Shaun, living with him at that time.  Shaun was a good kid, but he had a drug problem.  One day he went into San Francisco, and later was found dead by Vic, from a drug overdose.  Vic became deeply depressed. He told me one day that he just couldn't go on, without Shaun. One day I got a call from David,  " Vic took his life!".   He went the same way Shaun did,  however it was not an accident.  He did not want to live after the loss of Shaun.  I will miss him, and his friendly smile.