Victor Ortez's typical day

Photo taken by Zach Mayer.

By Zach Mayer


Victor has been getting by recently, but he says life has been a struggle lately. 

He has a 2.5 hour, 7.6 mile commute, because he is doing it the old fashioned way- he's walking. He works at the Wake the Dead coffee shop in west San Marcos.

He lives in the neighborhood of Redwood. Recently his commute has been from two and half to three or more hours long. This is because his truck has been broken, and he's saving up funding for repairs. His only means of transportation is his ability to walk or if he’s lucky enough to get a ride from someone. This has been the case for the last two months.

Victor Ortez, 54, usually comes around Wake the Dead in the morning. According to other Wake the Dead staff he comes and works mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays. He works as a grounds keeper at the coffee shop as well as working on jewelry and other decorations inside.

“He’s a creative guy. Pretty religious too,” said Hayley Welliver. “Has a lot of character, you'll find that out when you meet him.” 

She says that Victor has health problems and he has recently been on dialysis. Despite this he walks for several hours, but he get’s tired on his very long walks often.

“By the time I get into San Marcos, I'm exhausted,” Victor said.

He would like to have a working vehicle, so he wouldn’t always have to be so tired. He hopes to work up to payment for a means of transportation, but in the mean time he finds spiritual value in walking. He is hoping and praying for a break through.

"Kind of struggling a little bit, but what can I say? Everyone struggles right?,"Victor said. 

His kidney transplant is making employment difficult. He is happy to get what he can get from employment with Wake the Dead and other jobs. Such jobs include war reenactments of westerns, the Texas revolution, and the Texas rangers, as well as work for national geographic occasionally.  

Outside of the Wake the Dead coffee shop.
Photo taken by Zach Mayer 

Victor once had some ranch land in Burnet, but that changed when his health started getting bad. From that point things in his life have gotten worse. He had a divorce and his children are with their mom. He was homeless for a while, and in that time his home was abandoned. After getting help from a local street ministry, he got a job, and moved back into his home, which started falling apart. He’s in the process of fixing it. 

“I thank God so much for what he’s doing in my life,” Victor said. 

Victor knows there are other people in a similar condition who don’t have as mush strength to walk as much as he does. He is learning to be grateful for what he does have, that he does have a home, a job, the ability to walk, and being able to talk to his children.

He has been living in Redwood for several decades and remembers when it was mostly quiet.

“I used to sleep with my doors open, that's how much confidence I had," Victor said.  

The community started growing, and eventually people with gang relations came into the neighborhood. According to Victor since the increase of gang activity, drug dealing, alcoholism, violence, and murder has also increased. He has encountered a few hostile people in his neighborhood, but it doesn’t happen very often. Victor says he isn’t intimated, not only because he isn’t afraid of losing anything or his life, but also because he has some protection.

“I have some law,” he said. Victor owns a gun, for self protection. 

Besides gang or cartel activity, there is a lot of poverty and Victor sees it as a result of the residents’ personal brokenness.

“They have enough money for booze, they have enough money for drugs, whores, hookers, whatever, but they don't have enough money for themselves,” Victor said. 

Victor says that the church helps some with people dealing alcoholism. Victor says he helps some with groups who help residences find identity that isn’t related to drugs or alcohol. Although he says there is a lot of corruption in Redwood, there are some who decent.

“Why fear it? Was David scared of Goliath? What's out here? A lot of Goliaths, yet again there's a lot of Davids out here.”