Sarah Valenzuela Photography

“I like Victoria, more than Houston or Austin- they’re too big, too many people, I’m too claustrophobic for that. I like Victoria because I know where everything is, I know who everybody is. I like that it’s small but at the same time I don’t like that it’s small. There’s not very much to do, it’s boring sometimes. But the people are nice. But yeah, I’d add like.. I dunno, a freakin’ Luby’s or something. Mr. Gattis, Canes, probably a Fudruckers, they have good hot dogs.”

“I was born here in Victoria, Texas. My parents had moved down here from Kansas, so all of my family is from Kansas originally. I went to Chicago for college, and I’ve definitely seen lots of places outside of Victoria. But what made me come back? Part of the answer is that it was practical, there weren’t a whole lot of great teaching jobs. I knew I wanted to be a teacher but I also knew I wanted to teach in a place that would allow me a certain kind of freedom and environment that I had experienced when I was a student. So, by chance, in a sense, I reached out to STJ and kind of asked around, and those pieces just fell into place for me to move back here. Also this place was a good fit for me. I knew the impact that my teachers had had on me and the other people who’d grown up here in Victoria, and I felt like there might be a way I could pay some of those same lessons forward in this place. I feel so deeply rewarded by this particular job, that it’s hard for me to think about another choice.

Ya know, Victoria, it’s a weird place. And I’ve always kind of come at it as an outsider because I don’t have kin here. I don’t have 20 relatives up in Halletsville and we all go to some fish fry or whatever. My take on Victoria was always from an outsider’s perspective. As a kid I didn’t really appreciate how it was a very manageable sized community; you don’t have traffic snarls, about the busiest town ever gets is for about 15 minutes after 5:00, or during Christmas, or on Sunday after church. Victoria is a nice place, you’ve got places you can eat, shop, get an education if you want to. Those are all very nice things about the city. Victoria is also a place that likes to believe a mythology about itself. There aren’t that many people who know the history about the town. So that lovely sort of pleasant ville thing is in truth more complicated. The town was initially one of the few Spanish settlements, and yet none of the downtown streets have Spanish names. The public education system is not good; if you look at other districts, it has real problems. The town has something like a 60% Hispanic population and only a fraction of that group is reflected in the towns political and economic leadership. There are huge groups of the community that have to deal with lots of poverty but almost never get any attention. So it’s tough because you want to like this little self contained place, but to do so, sometimes, almost means you have to ignore some of the blemishes. Old Victoria is a classic example, you have these huge beautiful ante-bellum homes with the largest concentrations of pre-civil war architecture in the state. Yet you don’t have to go but a 1/4 mile and you’ve got intense levels of poverty and gang violence, and all kinds of things.

I think Victoria has grown in size, but in terms of the sort of culture of the town? I think in general it probably hasn’t changed. I think it’s changing amongst younger people. I sense huge monumental shifts in the way kids think about culture, religion, and politics within the town. And their level of engagement, I think that’s shifting.”

“I wasn’t born here, I was born in an even smaller little town, Alice, Texas. We moved here 47 years ago, when my husband and I had been married a year, and it was a strange place. When I lived in Alice it was all either Hispanics or Whites. There were no Blacks. So when I moved to Victoria, and I encounterd the African American race, I didn’t know how to act. But I thought to myself, they’re just people! When my daughter started kinder, my 4 year old, she was telling me something about a little girl. And I kept asking her ‘Well which one is she?’ And she’d tell me ‘The one with the pigtails, mom! The one that had the blue dress, mom! You know which one, the one that always wears those little pigtails!’ And it dawned on me, it was a little black girl. But she couldn’t tell me it was a black girl because to her there wasn’t any difference! It was just her friend! And so I knew I was doing something right.

How we came to Victoria, well, it’s kind of a strange story. Your grandpa had a close friend who was gonna come apply at Carbide, and he wanted your grandpa to come with him. But your grandpa didn’t want to! And I said ‘No, go with him! Poor guy doesn’t want to go by himself.’ So your grandpa came, they took the test, and your grandpa made a higher score! So they hired your grandpa instead of his friend! So the day after he graduated from Delmar we moved to Victoria. We knew no one. I didn’t have a very good feeling about Victoria. When we got here, we got in a phone booth and I started calling for rent places. And people were real nice, but I didn’t really have an accent back then, so they’d tell me ‘Come see the apartment!’ Then as soon as I’d give them my last name, they’d tell me they’d already rented it. So I wasn’t too happy, till we went to the North side of town. They were building new apartments, so we stopped there and the lady was so nice. She bought milk for my baby, because we had everything in an ice chest that first night, she was so nice. There’s good people, bad people everywhere.

This was where I wanted to raise my kids. Our family stayed united because of the fact that we weren’t spreading out here and there and everywhere. We just stayed united, and to this day we’re still united.  I love it here, I’d never move anywhere else. I love Victoria, so many different kind of people. I like the fact that there’s little shopping centers, you don’t have to go to the big, big malls and get lost in there. Everybody knows you, you go to the mall and you see people you know, everybody greets you."

“I lived in La Grange about ten years, then we moved to Victoria. I left from August of 2014 to about.. November of 2015. We went to Brenham to go to college, then moved to Fort Hood near Kileen. So when James got out of the army, we didn’t have any money, so we came back to live with my mom and get jobs here, and start going to school again. And I would rather stay here and be close to my family once James and I start having our own family, I guess. But we also both want to travel, and he doesn’t want to live in the state. So it just all depends. I like how Victoria isn’t a super gigantic town like Houston. And I like how you can go someplace and you see people you know like everywhere. People aren’t always the nicest, I dunno.”

"I was actually born in Port Lavaca and I grew up in Tivoli. I stayed there until I went off to college in Kingsville, came back here, got a job and have been working here ever since. I came back because my family was here. My parents were here, my sister was working here, I had two sisters who were still in high school, and we’re a very close knit family. Then Mike graduated from college and had the opportunity to work here at St. Joseph’s, so we settled here. And we never considered leaving to anywhere else. Never. When I was growing up, Victoria was “the big town,” because Tivoli had less than 100 people from 1st to 12th grade. So it was a big deal when we came into town, and once we got married we figured it was a really good place to raise children. I had Felicia a year and three months after we got married, and I knew that Victoria had a lot to offer a family. So that’s why we stayed. I like the size of Victoria, it’s not huge like Houston or even San Antonio, and it’s not as radical as Austin. But it’s not terribly conservative either, we have a big mix of all kinds of people: nice, kind people. We don’t have a lot of problems within, as far as I know, the different peoples and things. We all manage to get a long very well.

Though, I would like to see the downtown area developed more. We’ve got beautiful buildings downtown, and it’s not something that’s utilized the way it should be. That’s probably one thing. I think we could do more with Riverside park, it’s such a beautiful place. But we just drive through it, there isn’t really much to do within the park. And the park is very important to me, because, like I’ve told lots of different people, when Mike and I first moved here we were more poor than church mice. So for entertainment we’d go get a box of chicken, go to the park, and he’d tap dance on top of the picnic tables for me. That was our entertainment on Saturday afternoons. So the park is very important.”

“I don’t think I want to leave. Probably not. Probably for school, but I don’t want to leave forever. I like Victoria, I dunno. It’s where all my friends are, and my family. It gets kinda boring every now and then. Because I, like, do all the things. So I just repeat those things. Like going to Hangtime, or Outlaw Pass, I eat at the same restaurants. I’d add more stuff to it, make it more fun. More theme parks, that kind of thing. Like Six Flags or Schlitterbahn.”

“I left when I graduated from St. Joseph High School, I moved to Austin, and am at UT right now. And I’m probably going to move to Dallas afterwards. I moved mainly for school, but I think a reason I chose to go to a more urban place is that there’s a more diverse set of experiences in a bigger city. After 18 years, it gets kind of dull. Going to the same school for so long, you’re stuck with the same group of people all throughout that beginning phase of your life. That’s a downside. I think it was a good experience, spending the first part of my life here, but I’m looking forward to moving around. In terms of what I like about Victoria, think I had a pretty good education, and a pretty strongly family oriented background. But I don’t think there’s much of a chance that I’d ever be back in Victoria permanently. One thing I had thought about is maybe.. Well there’s some things at St. Joe that I’d like to change, how money is spent and things like that. For those reasons, there were times that I thought maybe I’d be interested in coming back. 

Victoria is a smaller town in South Texas, so to some degree I think it fits what a lot of other smaller towns are like. I don’t necessarily think there’s a whole lot of things that would change, you have a certain demographic and certain attitudes politically and religiously. If things were to be a little more diverse that’d be my preference. But I definitely don’t think everyone feels that way. For the people that live here, they really love Victoria. Especially my dad. There’s just things I like better about big cities. But in terms of a small city, it’s a pretty good place.” -Collin 

“I left for college about two years ago, I’m up in College Station right now. I mainly left because I knew there was only one educational place here. I just kind of wanted to spread my wings and see more of the urban side of life. So I’m really excited to be moving to Dallas as well. Different side of the world, kind of. My family is here, I think one of my favorite parts is having my mom’s huge extended family come in for Christmas and Easter, having a good sense of community. But same as Collin, I’m ready to get a bigger set of experiences and just see what’s going on in other places. I don’t think I would come back permanently, I would love to come back and just enjoy visiting my family and his family. I know our parents are pretty much planted here, at least for the foreseeable future, and it’s always good to come back to your roots.” -Hanna

“I was born in Orange, Texas. We moved to Victoria for my Dad’s job, and I left in 2011 to go to school in San Antonio. And I don’t want to stay here forever, just for personal reasons. I would like to experience my job as a music therapist in different parts of this country, then in different parts of the world where music therapy is growing. So I think I’ll stay here at least a year, and see how people here interpret being a music therapist and the techniques most people use. Eventually, though, I’d like to move somewhere else. 

I left Victoria because I saw a much wider variety of opportunities outside of it. There’s a lot of different areas of study that I found elsewhere that led me to music therapy, and that degree wasn’t offered in Victoria. There’s also a lot more job opportunities for a music therapist in San Antonio. I think the possibility of going back to Victoria is big because family is very important to me, and all of my immediate family still lives in Victoria. I would say eventually it’s a place to go back to once I’m older and don’t want to travel as much. I do applaud the people who stay or go back, though.. I’ve seen a lot of my sisters friends who are in their early thirties moving back, and I see the good that they’re doing in Victoria. I see it as as great place to help grow. This woman I know, she went to college, Texas Women’s I think, and she moved back home and started her own yoga business there! And she offers free yoga in the park. And it’s like.. Go her! Go all the young people who are going back to Victoria and making it what they want it to be! I’m seeing it change with them. It’s not a stagnant place, so that’s really awesome. And it makes me think ‘go them!’ And I could see myself doing that as well, but I definitely want to be a more experienced, knowledgable music therapist before I go there. I feel like my thing would be to introduce music therapy to Victoria and help it grow there. Victoria definitely seems like a place that’s accepting of change, or at least the people I come across. And really, Victoria is just the people who are there. It’s not a town that can just be labeled then left, its changing with the people who are living there and the choices they make.” 

“I born and raised in Dallas. I’ve also lived in other places; I went to college in Missouri, I lived in France for a while between stints in Victoria, and I lived in Halletsville, but my home is Dallas. So when I first moved down here it was a huge adjustment. I was in my 20’s when I entered the convent and thats what drew me to Victoria- the sisters. I never even knew this town existed except for some of the sisters that were at Incarnate Word Convent here. They came to Dallas and invited me to come down here… And what made me stay was mainly the sisters, however, I also fell in love with the people. It’s a different world than growing up in the big city where everyone can be kind of anonymous. Even though we had that small neighborhood I grew up in in Dallas, you go outside of that and you really became anonymous. But here, I couldn’t go into a grocery store without seeing somebody I taught or somebody that knew who I was. I kinda thought it was a little freaky at first, but then it got to be really comfortable. My community is here, I made a lifetime commitment to stay here. And it is a nice place to live, it has its flaws like any community, but I like the people. I like that it’s enough of a big city where you don’t feel isolated, but enough of the small town-ness that makes it.. makes people.. You know, everybody knows who Brother Gary Moses is- or everybody knew who Pepper was, until he kinda went off the deep end and ended up in jail.. But there’s that sense of at home-ness and a sense of community here. It’s more than just a city, there’s this connection when you live in a smaller town.” 

“I was born in Victoria, and I left when I graduated high school. I moved here to San Antonio. I left because.. well, it was more me going off on my own adventure. I knew if I stayed in Victoria, I’d probably stay with my family and be married by now with kids. I wanted to go off and be on my own, and have an adventure where no one knew me. So, I don’t know if I’d go back. I’ve thought about it a lot. Maybe if I was older and had kids, but not anytime soon. I feel like there’s not a lot to do in Victoria, I’ve done it all. Here in San Antonio there’s so much to do, so many festivals to go to, people to see, you can go to Austin easily. I love exploring new places. And I love Victoria because it’s so familiar, my family is there, its comforting. But it’s like.. after a day or two I’m already bored. Also, everybody knows everybody. If I do something, my mom will hear about it for sure. 

It’s weird because everyone that I’ve met here in San Antonio that has moved to Victoria, they love it. They think it’s a cute little town, but also big enough so there’s stuff to do. They like the familiarity of it. But growing up there, we’ve already done everything, seen everything, you know? I’d say my feelings for Victoria are more negative than positive. Everybody there has the same beliefs, they have their circles, and they just aren’t always as open minded. It doesn’t feel like there’s as much diversity. I feel like people are more accepting here.”

“I left Victoria when I was going to college, when I came to St. Edward’s in 2008. I got an internship working for the city of Victoria in 2014, so I moved back home for three months, the longest I’d ever been in Victoria since I’d left. When the prospect of doing an internship in Victoria came to me, I outwardly was like ‘Yeah that sounds really interesting,’ but in my mind I was like ‘I am not going to do that.’ And.. that only lasted for about a day, because the more that I thought about it, I realized it could be really cool. I honestly appreciated Victoria a lot more because of it. When you’re a teenager, you often want to leave that place you grew up, and almost rebel against it. But I’d already gotten out of Victoria, so I got to really appreciate what was nice about the place. I had a lot of positive experiences when I went back, it’s where I grew up. 

I really like downtown Victoria. That is something that you cannot find here in Austin. The architecture, the way it’s laid out, it’s still so historic and beautiful. It makes me sad that people don’t use it more. I don’t want it to be completely changed, full of skyscrapers and stuff. But it’d be nice if it wasn’t such a ghost town, like if people engaged with it more. It’s definitely a ‘roll up the sidewalks at 5:00pm’ kind of place. The theatre is amazing. The experiences I had at the theatre in Victoria, I didn’t realize how great it was until I left. It’s really incredible. Victoria has a lot of artsiness. I was in the ballet company too, we have the symphony, we have lots of art. 

I don’t like.. its hard to sometimes have different opinions. But at the same time, there’s lots of different opinions. But sometimes people tend to, and you see this with the online comments on the newspaper, they create this Victoria narrative and push it really hard, even if a lot don’t agree with it. It comes to the forefront. And it’s on both sides honestly, you see the super right wing stuff, but then you see this group who took pictures of businesses with Trump signs and were saying really ridiculous things on the internet, which only kind of fuels that other narrative as well. They equally disgust me, I was disappointed by that. You see this extremism, and it doesn’t represent Victoria as a whole, but you see it from the outside. And you think ‘this is what my crazy old friends are saying.’ It’s just something about the way the online news and media exists in Victoria is very strange.” 

“I was not born in Victoria, I was born in Longview, Texas. It’s about six to eight hours from here, kind of by Dallas. I lived there till I was about eleven. My dad got a job here at Detar; he’s a surgeon. I’ve lived in this house ever since. I left for college, but this has always been home base. I went to camp for a month once, and that’s the longest I was ever gone before college. I consider Victoria to be home, which is strange because it wasn’t home for the longest time. And it becoming what I considered “home” was a completely unconscious thing. I didn’t realize it until about two weeks ago, that when I say “home,” I don’t mean Longview anymore. It was also recently that I realized I didn’t hate everything here, and that it wasn’t really the worst place I could be. 

I don’t know if I’ll come back after college, it really depends on if my parents were still here. There’s a possibility that they wont be, and it also depends of what sort of job I get. I do plan on going to grad school. I would prefer not to come back. It’s not that I think everyone here is a horrible human being.. It’s just the culture here isn’t the kind of culture I feel I fit in with. I prefer somewhere like a bigger city, with more northern attitude I guess you could say.”

“My mom was born in Chihuahua and then they came over here. She met my dad up in West Texas, where he had worked for the oil field since he was like fifteen or sixteen. When they got married, he got a job at BP and they asked him if he wanted to move to Louisiana or Victoria, and he picked Victoria so he could stay in Texas. I’ve been here since I was two and I haven’t ever moved away or anything. We most definitely want to leave, I’m just staying here to do my basics. I feel like I’m getting the same level of education here as I would anywhere else, and it’s cheaper. Once I finish, I’m actually planning on applying to law school next semester in Houston. I think we’ve both thought about settling here, but we want to travel a little bit. We’d like to probably live here eventually. 

My experience here in Victoria has been positive. If anything bad has happened to me, it hasn’t been here. It’s been in other cities. I like it here, I grew up here. Our favorite thing is that the driving here is not bad. And we find stuff to do, we don’t complain, we have stuff to do on the weekends. I don’t really have anything to complain about Victoria. I’d like to get more businesses here, I’d like for Victoria to grow. I’d probably get more open mindedness, more education. Not just for politics, but for everything and everybody. Taking my political science classes this semester, I’m realizing a lot of people are pretty shut out to hearing other peoples’ ideas, or points of views. I think Victoria is changing, though. My mom said when she first moved here, people had prejudice against her because she spoke Spanish, or because of her skin color. But she says she doesn’t feel that way anymore. So through my mom’s perspective, Victoria’s changed a lot. She feels a lot more peaceful here.” -Araceli 

“I ended up here because of my dad’s job, he used to work for BP and he’s retired now. I’m planning to just finish my pre-requisites here, then finish my degree in Houston. I’m studying dental hygiene. But yeah, the mall is pretty shitty here. And people are pretty close minded here as well, I feel like they judge you if you’re different than them. Too much cowboy stuff.” -Pablo 

“I have mixed feelings about leaving. I’m used to Victoria, I’m used to having a bunch of family around me. But I want to leave, I want to adventure. It’s very family oriented, it’s small. Which is good and bad. Growing up here, you’re used to it. But you can’t go and explore something new everyday. After a few years you’ve seen everything, until something new comes along. But that takes forever. 

Lately people have been getting on my nerves with this whole ‘The world revolves around me’ kind of thing. We have.. high powers here, people who control everything. How they want it is how it’s gonna be. In larger cities, the people in power have to make changes if the people want those changes; here they don’t have to. They do whatever they want. I almost wish everyone here would move to a big city, and get a reality check. Then they can come back.”

“I was born in Pasadena, California, where the Rose Bowl is. We came here because my mom’s family was here, and my dad wanted my mom to be close with them. So we packed up and moved here when I was about two. I left in 2013 for college. I go to Texas A&M University, Class of 2017. Whoop! I wanted to leave for education purposes, we have a college here in Victoria, but at the time is didn’t seem as strong as it is now. Texas A&M had a great history of academics, I wanted to get a very good college experience. But I’d come back, especially to this house here in the country. I wouldn’t mind raising my kids here, at all. They’d have the same private school education that I had. I had a really nice school experience here, there weren’t any discipline problems, any huge bullying issues. Never saw a school fight. I’ve had a pretty positive experience here in Victoria, but I’ve also had a very sheltered life. So I can’t see the bigger picture, really. I’ve only ever hung out with certain people, gone certain places at certain times. I was never at, like, a house party while I lived here. I had the same friends since when I was three. I like the small town feel of Victoria, but honestly my favorite part of the city is this house. So if this house wasn’t here, I’d be more likely to not care about settling here. 

If I could change anything, I would want a better relationship between the community and municipal parks. Because honestly Victoria is lacking on that, we don’t even have a dog park. I feel like a community recreation center, or parks in general, can really help a community with after school activities in low income areas. And that gives opportunities to those kids who wouldn’t normally get them. In Victoria, you can have those opportunities- but you have to pay a bunch of money for them. It’s like pay to play, and that excludes so many people. If there was more interaction between the community and parks and rec, that’d be better for Victoria as a whole.” 

“I was born here, but I currently live in San Antonio with my grandparents. Because I want pursue a career in the arts, I didn’t see Victoria being able to assist me that much in my journey. I don’t think I’d come back to Victoria, my parents plan on moving after my sister graduates so I wouldn’t have any roots left here. While Victoria has its definite downfalls, Theatre Victoria is here, my whole family is here, most of my friends are here. The theatre is so amazing for what it’s given, they produce such good shows, it lets the youth be included with different camps and classes. It’s really great people for a town that’s so small and so South. It’s Dirty Vic, where Casa Olé is iconic, it’s iconic. And it’s a double-edged sword, but I like that everyone knows each other and is connected to each other. There’s entire inside jokes amongst the community, everyone is on the same page mostly. But whenever there’s a scandal, or something’s going on, it rocks the entire town. Everyone knows about it. 

This might sound shallow, but I wish it was prettier. Most of Victoria, besides downtown, is kind of ugly. I’d like the people to be less close minded. And, well, they took the carousel out of the mall which was a definite downgrade.” 

“I plan on moving to Austin, then to New York. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to leave. It’s not so much that the town drove me away, but it didn’t compel me to stay either. I remember having a lot of classmates in elementary school whose parents were plant workers, doing really regional stuff. And they wanted to stay and follow in their parents’ footsteps. That never really interested me. I never wanted to anchor my life here, I always wanted to explore what was out there. And I don’t know if I’d ever come back, I don’t think I could answer that right now. I don’t know how my life is going to unfold; I would say no, but that’s a postulation right now. 

I’m indifferent about Victoria. The negative feelings I have towards the town, for its sort of apathetic nature, are sort of outweighed by the great people that I’ve met here. I don’t necessarily love the town, but I love its inhabitants. For a small town of 70,000, we have an unproportional amount of culture in the way of fine arts. We’re the smallest metropolitan area that has its own news station. We have a quality community theatre, a ballet studio, we have arts programs that come in licensed by Victoria corporations. I like that people have the opportunities to experience things they would normally in big cities, but I don’t feel like enough people take advantage of that. I feel like if they did, they landscape of the town would be a lot different. 

You talked about how after the arson of the mosque, Victoria was painted with a broad brush. The way it was painted is what I dislike about Victoria, because you’re right. It doesn’t represent the entire community, but it does represent a facet of the community. An ignorant, hateful, bigoted facet. I feel like the further I get away from Victoria, the less I’ll have to experience that. If only because there will be a much larger sample size. 

Also, I’d get someone to edge the lawns of Victoria because I hate seeing grass grow out of concrete.” 

“I am 57 years old. I can’t believe I’ve got this old. I still feel like in my 20’s you know? Been in Victoria for 23 years. My husband is from here, his whole family is here. We moved here from San Antonio. You know, actually it’s 22 years. We had the first grandchild for my in-laws which is why we moved here. Also because it is a good place to raise a family. And we’ve been parishioners at Our Lady of Victory all these years. And as you well know I was a full time Art Center teacher’s aide for five years and two years part time at the school. That’s how I put our boys through private Catholic school. I loved every minute of it. So our boys are now on their adult paths and we’re getting used to being empty nesters. So it’s kind of interesting. It’s a whole new dynamic. We’re getting to know each other as a couple. It’s kind of cool. We have more freedom. 

Victoria has been a great place to spend the last 23 years, I can see why people stay here. It’s been a great experience. It’s a big small town. It’s very family oriented. And I don’t regret moving and establishing roots here. It’s a great place to live. I’ve seen the community come together to benefit several different organizations or causes. You know, like the mosque fire incident, everybody came together. So many people came together to benefit that. And that was a traumatic experience, not just for the people in that community, but it affected the reputation of Victoria. Seeing so much good come from a tragedy, that’s Victoria.”

“I left Victoria for about a year and two months to move to Austin and then we came back, because my girlfriend is expecting a baby and it’s just easier to be around family right now. It was a fun 14 months, but in the long haul I really just wanted to be back in Victoria with family. It’s a family oriented city. Everywhere I enjoy going has people there that know you when you walk in, and that’s what I like about it. I’m not sure that I’d leave again; it just depends on circumstances. In the long haul I think Victoria is my home unless something drastic changes. 

You know, there’s a lot of violence right now in Victoria. There’s a lot of robberies and stuff like that. I guess you could you could say that’s what I don’t like. 

I’ll tell you this.. I feel like if I can change anything here, it will be by being a good father to Rhiley and to my son Jaxon, because I know that my father was great to me and that made me the person I am. And I know I affect people’s lives every day, whether it’s at Discount Tire or whether it’s seeing a friend. I know that people look up to what I do, and I know that there are people that see how I act and react and think that it’s OK. So if there is one thing I can change about the world, it’s to change myself and be a better leader. Because I know one day my sons will be in those positions, and they will be leaders. They’re going to be the ones that are looked up to. And other kids are going to react and act because of the way they do. And that’s the way it is. I know that I went to school with people that had money or they had popularity, whatever it was, but they weren’t leaders. They just acted based on what other people did. So that tells me that maybe if I would have done something different in high school, that may have saved somebody else from being in trouble. Or, you know, vice versa”

“I was born here, and I left for about rougly four years to go to high school in Shiner, Texas. And then I came right back for college. I don’t think we’d ever leave, because Jacoby has his shop here. This is our life, working here. I mean he may branch out one of these days, but he’s gonna be here forever. And I don’t really want to leave, I like the country feel, yet it also has a city feel to it. It’s small but big at the same time. And you can get anywhere within fifteen minutes. The only negative thing I’d have to say is crime really, that’s kind of bad here. And they don’t really do anything about it. But other than that, I don’t see what’s wrong with Victoria. I love it because I’ve been here forever. I’d make the roads better if I could. They’re super pothole-y, and there’s a bunch of bumps. Especially Crestwood, that’s probably the worst road in Victoria.”

“I was born and raised here. We moved to Beaumont for a year then moved right back, just for my dad’s job. But I think I want to leave, it’s small here and I like bigger cities. I think I’d move to San Antonio area. It’s close enough to town where I could still come visit family, but far enough to give me my own space. 

I think Victoria has a lot of negative, but it depends what side of town you’re on. It has some pluses. It’s a little town to raise a family and whatever but there’s some bad. All of the drugs and violence running everywhere, you can’t get away from it. On the other hand, there are some really good churches, good families living here. The people are pretty nice to each other. 

If I were to go out and change things, if I had like all the money in the world, I would definitely go help all the people that have been effected by the floods and stuff like that. I’d help them get back on their feet and stuff. The river floods a lot. I would also make there more stuff to do in Victoria, like bigger things that attract people in. Yeah. But I would help the people first.” 

“I actually was born here in Victoria, but we lived in Refugio, so I was there until about 6th grade. Then we moved here because my mom worked at VISD, in payroll. She was commuting every morning, so she finally just decided that we’d move here. I think I want to move, just to try a new place. I don’t want to look back and say ‘Hey I got stuck here.’ So I want to try a new place, and if I come back then I come back. But I mean, I like Victoria. It’s gotten a lot better, it’s bigger now. I just don’t want to regret not trying something new. But my family is here, we’re very family oriented so I’m always around them. I like it, it’s a nice place. 

It’s super conservative, so that’s probably the only thing I’d say I dislike about it. So when I move, I’d probably move somewhere more left leaning. But community is important here. Victoria tries really hard to do things that bring the community together, and they’re pretty successful. If I was telling someone about Victoria, I’d definitely say that the community is really good. And everyone supports each other.” 

“I was actually born here. I think me and Tom were born in the same hospital. I left. I was born here, then I was in the foster home in Wharton, from there I went all the way to the valley with my grandparents, I lived there till my sophomore year. Then my sophomore year I moved up here to Blessing with my sister and her whole family. I was living in Blessing when I had Rhiley, in 2013. I moved to Austin with Thomas for a little. And I moved back here because.. well, I’m having your brother’s baby. I’m pretty sure if I weren’t pregnant I’d be living in Blessing. We’d still be dating but I wouldn’t be living with him. But neither of us liked Austin, I was ready to be back here, because my family is here. Austin isn’t bad, really, it was just way bigger. Traffic was probably the only thing I didn’t like.. it wasn’t bad. But I didn’t have friends over there, really. It’s not bad in Victoria either, it’s alright. Better than Bay City or El Campo. I think it’s nice here, I guess maybe the whole crime thing.. I never thought it’d be like that here, it’s kind of crazy. But yeah. Nothing really bothers me about Victoria.” 

“I don’t know if I’d leave. Well, your mom has said that she would like to go to Austin after we’re done raising kids and stuff, but it’s never been my idea to. I guess thinking.. Since my dad and my brother passed away I kind of think like, you know, life is short. Maybe I should go see what other stuff is about. So no, leaving isn’t out of the question. 

My thoughts may differ than yours and your brother and your sisters, but Victoria to me is where I always thought I would come back to. I just love the place, I love the fact that when I go to Walmart or HEB or anywhere, people call me by my name. Or, for instance I hear ‘Hey, I saw I saw you in your car the other day,’ because everybody knows the Camaro I have. 

In terms of what I don’t like.. It sounds funny but there’s too many rich people here- it’s hard to buy a car. I also don’t remember hearing a lot of the crime stuff when I was when I was younger. I mean, jiminy cricket, somebody robbed the bank here. And Victoria definitely has changed with the oil field; we’ve got people that are just renting to live here and don’t really care about the community. I think they just live here while the job’s here. And then there’s all of us that live here. We pick up a piece of trash in the yard, rather than just let it just sit there, you know? Because we own the place and we love the place.”

“I was born in Alice, I came with my parents when I was, like, two. I left and went to Houston, I went to college. Michael left first, to UTI, then I probably moved about a month after him. I came back because your dad was done with school and he didn’t want to stay in Houston. If I would’ve stayed in Houston and done what I’d wanted to do, which was go to medical school, it would’ve been such a long time.. I didn’t really have my heart in it anymore. I would’ve stayed in Houston, but your dad didn’t like it. Your dad wanted to come home, and that was an option- come home, get married, raise a family. If I had an option, like if my parents weren’t here anymore and my kids were all grown? Yeah, I probably wouldn’t stay, I would like to be in a bigger city. I would definitely think about moving somewhere else. I don’t like.. the gangs. We definitely have a gang issue. We’re limited in options for shopping, eating out, driving. You don’t have any choice but to get on Navarro if you need to cross town. I’d add an overpass, like a freeway that goes over Navarro, can just exit when you need to. But yeah.. And there’s the political side of things. There’s so much politics in the way the sheriffs department is run; even the city council, the lawyers, everything has an agenda behind it. But of course there’s the positive things about Victoria, there’s the university and the college. To raise a family, this is a good place.”