BY VINCENT FRANCO
Victor Casillas Valle, a former WCHS student, first started out in journalism like most students, being forced into it after there wasn’t any more room in any other elective classes. Valle didn’t seem to like it at first, but after a while, he managed to get the hang of it and ended up a four year student. Valle also made his way through most positions including Editor in Chief his senior year.
Valle graduated from WCHS and attended University of San Francisco, where he double majored in Communication Studies, Media Studies. He double minored in journalism and music as well. His first job as a journalist was through the Chronicle of Social Change, where he wrote on mental health, the child welfare system, and juvenile incarceration. Valle even worked as a freelance writer for a while.
“These were all topics that I had barely, if even, brushed against… It was a lot of speed learning and catching up, but I loved it,” Valle said, “It was fast paced, and having a set beat really kept me up to date. I was the expert in that field. I would say even now that I still know a ton about it just because I taught myself and learned so much.”
Halfway through school at SFU, Valle realized that working as a full-fledged journalist wasn’t for him. He was more interested on being a music, feature, or beat writer. These were things he loved to do and had the freedom to write whatever he wanted. Working behind a desk and doing investigative news writing wasn’t going to do it for him.
Other than journalism, Valle has accomplished a lot ranging from starting up his first music blog in 2005 to starting up his own music management company, Counter Culture Group. They professionalize in things like band development, booking, touring, events, and music law. Valle’s goal with Counter Culture is to “move away from the stigma that is attached to the music industry by creating an agency that is multifaceted, ever growing, adaptive and personable”
“I think pursuing journalism as a career is out of what I look to do now. I think enjoying it and doing it so I can continue to write has been my approach as of lately.” Valle said.
Although he doesn’t consider himself a career journalist, Valle has accomplished a good amount with writing. One of his most rewarding pieces was one he did on the large issues of rent, housing prices, and inequalities that San Francisco has been facing recently called the “Creative Solution to San Francisco’s Housing Crisis”. This was part of a project that won him a Society of Professional Journalist award for “explanatory Journalism”. It took him about 2 months to research for and write the story. More recently, Valle took a more of a personal route and wrote an open letter to Donald Trump for New Slaves Magazine. This piece went viral and received some death threat letters for it.
“Am I career journalist? Probably not. But I love the pieces I write and enjoy even more the creativity to pursue them on my own terms,” Valle said.
