A Long Journey Home For Oscar Villacis

As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, Oscar Villacis felt like he always had something to prove.

His bullies reminded him daily that he wasn't the biggest, toughest kid in town. Drug dealers recruited him as an unsuspecting "paper bag boy" to deliver packages he was afraid to open, by bicycle, across town.

His next-door neighbor, a kid just like him, lost his mom most days to crack; a kid who had even more bullies than Villacis.

"One day I saw his bike laying on the ground, and then I saw a bunch of kids beating him up nearby. I knew it was up to me, so I grabbed something and hit one of the kids on the head, and chased them away,"  Villacis said.

Of course, that only refocused the target on his own back and made his problems with bullies worse.

So when his mom announced the family was moving to Nashua in 1997, to a place just named "the greatest place to live," Villacis was overjoyed.

"I was 11 when we left New York. I was so happy to get away from the bullies," said Villacis, now 25.

But Villacis soon found out that bullies persist everywhere, even in the greatest place on earth.

In lieu of a growth spurt, Villacis needed to flex some adolescent muscle and live up to the reputation – although unwarranted – that he carried to New Hampshire with him, as a street-smart kid from Brooklyn.

"I wasn't a tough guy. Before coming to Nashua, I mostly stayed inside my house playing video games. I was afraid to be outside, because of the bullies and the crack dealers," Villacis said.

"Looking back now, I know I just needed attention. But at the time I made some bad choices," Villacis said.

Hormones compounded by some family strife led Villacis down a one-way path to trouble. One day, when his bully called him "shorty" in front of some other kids at the Boys & Girls Club, Villacis didn't hold back.

"I punched him, right then and there. The next day, the police came looking for me," Villacis said.

He was 13, and in and out of trouble after that. By 15, Villacis was incarcerated at the Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord.

"I actually spent my fifteenth birthday there. Eventually they moved me to a center in Rochester. After a while, my mom just wanted me to come home. She could have used my help with my younger brother and sister, but by then, the system had me," Villacis said.

His lucky break came when there was an opening at Nashua Children's Home, which provides care and counseling for kids in need coming from a range of situations.

"I have to say that NCH saved me. It was the right place for me. The other places were a jail, plain and simple. NCH was a home away from home. It has a warm staff and they really changed my life around for the better. They are the reason I am who I am today," Villacis said.

"When you put a young adult into the system who's acting out, what they need is healing. A jail cell might tame them, but once you let them out, they will act out again. You keep doing that consistently, without the healing, and that person will never get out of the system," said Villacis, sounding wise beyond his 25 years.

Once he aged out of NCH, Villacis limped along on his own. He found himself on the edge of trouble again, and returned to the NCH for advice. His counselor told him, plainly, it was time to stop messing up.

"I finally woke up. My counselor told me that once I was 18, the next time he saw me it would be because I was going to jail. I knew it was time for me to get it right," Villacis said.

He started making connections within the city's Latino community and being inspired by start-up business projects, including streetwear enterprise DefamNation.

A chance meeting at a house party with some international au pairs working in New Hampshire presented Villacis with his next adventure.

"I followed my heart to Germany after falling in love with an au pair. When it was time for her to go back home I couldn't imagine living without her, so I followed her there," said Villacis.

He found work in Germany bussing tables in a Spanish restaurant until he found a job opportunity of a lifetime, working for an international school in need of a native English speaker, to teach the children.

"I was really blessed by that whole experience. I didn't speak German and the kids didn't speak English, but we taught each other. It was a fantastic experience," Villacis said – but one that ended sooner than expected, when he got word that his grandfather in Ecuador had died.

Villacis flew to South America for the funeral, and was struck by how much he missed his family, particularly his mom in Nashua.

"I could've stayed in Germany and had a different life, but at that point, I just knew it was time to come home to Nashua. My family is everything to me. Working with the kids and growing up a little along the way helped me focus on what I really wanted to do," said Villacis.

Which brings him to the present.

He has a good job with Apple Inc., and dabbles with fashion design on the side. He is currently in the dream stage of his big idea – opening a community center in downtown Nashua. He will call it Untouched Talent, a place where kids can come to explore the arts and develop inner talents that otherwise might never surface.

He's trying to make good connections through the city's Arts Commission and Visualize Nashua, two avenues that might bring his dream closer to reality.

He believes there is a place for existing organizations, like the Boys & Girls Club and the YMCA. But from his own experience, those places are often a one-size- fits-all situation for kids who don't quite fit.

"My whole life I never quite felt like I fit in, no matter where I went. After a while I got bored with the Boys & Girls Club. You can only play so much basketball or air hockey," Villacis said.

His vision includes hands-on arts experience, lining up mentors from different art disciplines to teach kids new skills. He envisions art shows and fashion shows, kids selling shirts and clothing they've designed, a series of kid-centric events all with the goal of establishing scholarship funds to help aspiring artists pursue their talents through higher education.

"I keep thinking if I'd had a place like this, maybe I wouldn't have gotten myself into so much trouble," said Villacis, who says he sees his little brother, 11-year-old George, as the perfect example of the kind of kid who could use a place like Untouched Talent.

"He's a lot like I was. He spends a lot of time playing video games at home. But he has had the benefit of growing up here in New Hampshire, where they take bullying more seriously these days, than they did when I was a kid growing up in New York. Still, he has had his own problems with bullies; bullies will find you anywhere you are – even at the Boys & Girls Clubs," Villacis said.

For now, he will continue to do what he does best; following his heart.

"I know that everything I've been through has led me back to this place. I love living on Main Street, and being part of what's happening, every day," Villacis said. "This is my dream, and I'm going to make it happen. It's going to take some time, but I feel ready now to make a difference, to give something back."