Front Porch Podcast – Episode 3: Former Pro-Wrestler Victor Ceron Pays It Forward

Anna Hall: Welcome to The Front Porch Podcast. Join us as we uncover the extraordinary stories of people who are part of Front Porch Communities and Services, young professionals just starting their journeys, lifelong learners pursuing new passions and seasoned storytellers sharing the wisdom they’ve gained along the way.

Together, we’ll explore how purpose and community shape us with stories that will inspire you to discover your own unique contribution.

Views expressed by guests on this podcast are the opinion of the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Front Porch Communities and Services. Please see our show notes for more details.

I’m your host, Anna Hall. In this episode, you’ll hear Victor share the power of culture and how it’s impacted his life. And it really is an incredible human need and desire to feel a sense of belonging and culture is is one of those tools in our human toolkit that humans create naturally across time and space in order to create this sense of belonging through shared values, shared experiences, shared beliefs and the stories that we all share. Victor’s experience growing up in his culture is so powerful. I can’t wait for you to hear it. And he also shows us through his story of how culture shaped him, why it’s so important for organizations and communities to have culture. It is through these shared values and our natural need to belong and have shared experiences that we grow and learn together and feel united.

Before he started working in senior living communities, Front Porch’s Vice President of Project Management, Victor Ceron was a professional wrestler. As Kafu, the Brazilian Beast, Victor performed with WWF, WWE around the world, but he says his true calling is in building. With degrees in HVAC, electrical specialization and construction management, Victor has built commercial facilities, residential homes and senior communities from the ground up.

A father and grandfather, Victor is still involved in wrestling, training future stars like his son. Victor, welcome to The Front Porch Podcast.

Victor Ceron: Thank you, Anna. Thank you for having me.

Anna Hall: Talking to you inspires me every single time. So let’s jump right in. You were a superstar on television. Now your Front Porch’s superstar. But can you share, what was one of your best memories of being a wrestler?

Victor Ceron: First of all, how I started my dream with wrestling I was in in Mexico. Right? I’ll tell you this story. You know, over there, there was Lucha Libre, which is completely different than here in the United States. Over there, they wear masks and all that stuff there. So, my grandpa took me to a show, I was intrigued after the show, and I, you know, these guys were, like, bigger than life. They were superheroes, right? And I just wanted to know how that feel like, you know, if I were to be a wrestler since I was a little kid there. I used to grab a towel and wrap my head and think, oh, this is my mask. Oh my God, this. Sometimes I grab my underwear, put it on my head.

Anna Hall: Now, Victor, some would call that manifesting.

Victor Ceron: Yeah, exactly, so I was like jumping and all that stuff.

Anna Hall: You spent some of your childhood in Mexico, and then you moved to the US. Tell us about the beginnings for Victor.

Victor Ceron: Oh my goodness. So many memories from Yucatan. It’s a long story, because my father immigrated first, then my mom and  then I didn’t come back to until later on. I actually lived with my grandpa and grandma in the farm. My grandpa was a butcher. They taught me since little to work hard, feed the pigs at five in the morning. Go, go get, like, the chickens ready. And so we used to do that in the morning, then I used to go to school.

But anyways, it was really tough because it was, in some of those areas, still no electricity. It was really a third world country there. I tell this to my kids, when we opened that faucet, like, in your room, you know, in your house, and hot water magically comes out. You know what? That’s a blessing for somebody.

Anna Hall: Yes. Clean water is a blessing.

Victor Ceron: Sometimes you had to walk a mile, two miles to get water, come back with buckets of water, put them in the fireplace, or like in a little fire pit. And from there we used to bathe ourselves.

Anna Hall: You’ve also talked to me about the incredibly rich culture that you grew up with, and how that’s impacted how you think about community. I’m thinking specifically about the annual run of the Virgin. Could you tell our audience about that?

Victor Ceron: December 12th, we celebrate Mary the Virgin. You know, we had this run where we used to call it, Kind of  “paying our dues” right on the people that were before you, the ones that laid the path for you. We used to carry a torch. And part of our sacrifice was for us to run barefoot on the actual pavement- when there was pavement. In some of these places, there was no pavement. It touches me because it’s beautiful. It’s about believing in you, believing in yourself and believing in others. Taught me from a really young age that in life, things can be hard. And part of that run is the pain that you’re feeling in your feet. Right?

Anna Hall: How long were you all running for?

Victor Ceron: So we take we take turns. It used to be a run that lasted five days.

Anna Hall: What?

Victor Ceron: Yeah.

Anna Hall: I thought you were talking like 30 seconds

Victor Ceron: No, no, so like… so you run as much as you can. Like, you take turns, the torch gets passed. But what is beautiful about that is that when you’re tired somebody is there to relieve you. Right, having that trust.

So we used to run it and the goal is to arrive at 7:00 in the main church when the mass was about to start. And that torch needed to be there.

Anna Hall: Talk about a motivation, right?

Victor Ceron: Motivation, or teamwork, understanding how you trust others to go with you if they want to go with you. Right? It was a choice. The funny part is that I was a kid when I started doing that. And, I didn’t get that. I didn’t get that until later on. It’s a deep question for me. Culture.

Anna Hall: Culture is deep. It is our rituals, our beliefs, our values, our traditions, our stories. We do have that as an organization. You’re talking about your personal culture that you grew up in, your family. And I can see how much it has shaped you as you talk about teamwork, about doing hard things, about believing that things can get better, about when you’re tired, somebody else will pick up for you.

I mean, I see that in you, the Victor that I know today. It’s beautiful to learn more about how you became you.

Victor Ceron: Appreciate it. And we are always learning, because, a lot of times, as we grow as human beings, you don’t get those things until later on. Like, you understand. You understand the lessons later in life. Sometimes.

Anna Hall: So when is it that you later made that realization?

Victor Ceron: When I moved to United States, coming in a really crucial age of I think, I believe I was 12 or 13 years,

Anna Hall: Very crucial age.

Victor Ceron: Very crucial age.

Anna Hall: Teen, early teenage years. Yes.

Victor Ceron: I didn’t spoke the language, I was coming to a completely different culture. So when we first came to United States, we’re a family of six. I’m the oldest, then my brother Javier, then my sister Maria, and my youngest brother, Edwin. There was my mom and dad…. We used to we used to live in somebody’s house in the backyard. It was essentially, I’m going to call it what it is. It was a little shed there. We didn’t really have, a bed. My dad, had to work many jobs. Most of them were fast food restaurants. Our main goal was to make sure Edwin had his formula and night time, we used to, wait for my dad to come back from there, and he had, good people around him that used to kind of give him whatever was left in the restaurant. And we used to split the burgers and and that was… or we used to wait for dinner, essentially, at some point in our life, it was very humbling beginnings.

Anna Hall: Is this what you think of when you think of “pay it forward?”

Victor Ceron: Yeah, uh huh. Sorry.

Anna Hall: It’s okay. Take your time. Part of why we want you to be a guest is because you share your stories with such sincerity and authenticity.

Victor Ceron: At that time, I’m never going to forget. I used to work in the flea market on the weekends, and, I used to get there really early in the morning at five in the morning just to help people set up and earn a couple dollars here and there.

Anna Hall: And how old were you then?

Victor Ceron: I was only 13 years old, when we first came here.

Anna Hall: So it was recently when you moved. Okay.

Victor Ceron: And because I knew that my my, father and my mom needed my help, you know, because, again, going back in, running those miles to get to the church, right? It’s the belief. The belief.

Anna Hall: At 13 years old you were so aware of your family circumstances, and you felt a responsibility. And you started contributing.

Victor Ceron: Yeah, because I didn’t want my brothers to know that. I didn’t want them to carry that. and I used to work with another guy named Frank, and he had a T-shirt store. But around that corner, was a gentleman… Ranjeet was his name. He had a convenience store and he always allow me to have a tab on his convenience store. And every time I used to get paid on the weekends, you know, throughout the week, I used to pick up eggs or whatever we needed. And on the weekends, I used to go pay my tab with him, you know, and and and pay off whatever I owe him. And, And anyways.

Well, things start changing. My dad, that’s when he first started getting into construction. My father is, he’s not such a large guy, but he’s, he’s one of the most determined persons in this planet. I admire him, he’s one of my heroes. So things start changing, and it was the last time I went to see Ranjeet, and I wanted to pay what I owe him. And I said to him that, you know, things are getting better. Like we were moving to Santa Clara. My my dad, we know we’re doing much better at that time, right? and when I say, you know, thank you for everything, it really you have been an angel to me and my family that, you know, there’s there’s a lot of good people still in this world, right?

So I came over here to pay you my tab, and, he grabbed my hands and he said, “Kid, keep your money. But whenever you can help somebody else.”

Anna Hall: You do every day.

Victor Ceron: There’s always somebody else there watching for you.

Go, go back to my culture. When you’re running, having that faith, having that open mind, that open heart, to give back to humanity. It’s always somebody else helping you. Just like my grandpa helped me. My father and Ranjeet.

Anna Hall: You helped your brothers.

Victor Ceron: Yes. It’s crazy how the life can be if people are open.

Anna Hall: You know, I think about you and your stories of your family and your grandparents. And you were a little boy with a mask on, and you said you wanted to know what that feeling would be like to be a professional wrestler. What was that feeling like and was it as you imagined?

Victor Ceron: It was, incredible. There’s no feeling in the world when you’re on that ring because, you almost feel invincible. People not just chanting your name, but when they’re buying the story that you’re telling them, wrestling, I was a “heel” most of the time.

Heel means you’re the bad guy, right? Babyface, you’re the good guy.

So I was wrestling Savio Vega there in a cage match,

Anna Hall: Oh, that sounds so scary a cage match. Oh!

Victor Ceron: We’re just going at it and in wrestling we call “he gig that night.” So gigging means we hide the little blade and we just kind of do a little incision in our forehead, and we start bleeding.

Anna Hall: What?

Victor Ceron:  Yeah, when you see me, you see some of the marks here on my forehead. That’s for that.

Anna Hall: That’s intense. Victor.

Victor Ceron: Savio Vega is kind of like the Hulk Hogan in Puerto Rico. Let’s put it that way. He’s an icon there. So that night, I was wrestling for the championship title for them, for IWA International Wrestling Alliance. when there, when he was beating me up that, after I give him the heat. “Heat”… that means this was my time to kind of beat him up. He had this come back where, like, I missed something, and then he starts hitting me.

Anna Hall: Oh the drama.

Victor Ceron: The drama!

Anna Hall: The story! Yes.

Victor Ceron: And I’m like bumping all over the place, right? Yeah, and they’re going crazy. So, there was a, portion where we did what is called a “Ref Bump”. So what happened The ref kind of got behind me, then Savio charged me, then I move out of the way so he hits the ref, right? And the ref gets “knocked out,” right? That’s part of the act there. And then he turns around I hit him with a chair. Bah! Over and over, right? And that’s when he kind of gigging. So he started bleeding. These people were going crazy in the crowd. It was over 30,000 people in the stadium in San Juan there. And I’ll just keep hitting him. When the ref is waking up, Savio starts getting up. I throw the chair at Savio, and I take a bump, and the ref thinks that he hit me with a chair. So he disqualifies him.

Anna Hall: Ooh.

Victor Ceron: And these people went crazy, right? They were like, oh my God.

Anna Hall: Because they’re so in the story. Right? Wow. You were a bad guy!

Victor Ceron: I was the bad guy. I don’t know if you remember the Bushwhackers from the 80s? In WWF at the time.

Anna Hall: Just to clarify the Bushwhackers  are the Australian wrestling duo Luke Williams and Butch Miller.

Victor Ceron: After the match. I won the championship by “cheating,” right? I’m in the locker room. I took a shower, getting ready and Luke comes from the back, right? And he comes back and he says, “Hey, mate, just stay here. Don’t come outside.” I’m like, okay. You know, no problem. I was just kind of getting ready. But an hour went by, hour and a half goes by and he comes back and “Hey mate don’t come outside.” Right?

Anna Hall: It’s not safe for you to go out because the crowd’s mad? because you were a bad guy.

Victor Ceron: Yeah, well there were about a thousand Puerto Ricans.

Anna Hall: Oh.

Victor Ceron: Waiting for me with machetes outside.

Anna Hall: With machetes?

Victor Ceron:  Yes. They had to call the cops to put me in the van to drive me to Isla Verde. Like in the cop car, because they were that upset.

Anna Hall:  Look at you smiling. You’re like, yeah, I did a good job

Victor Ceron: That’s when you know you did your job. You told my story, right?

Anna Hall: I mean, we hear this incredibly authentic, like gentle giant. And you were this Brazilian Beast who was wrestling and smashing people. Who is the Brazilian Beast and who is Victor? And how do you separate them? Or do you?

Victor Ceron: The name was Kafu, because, actually, when we created that name with my, promoter at the time, the whole full name is Kafulinga and Kafulinga was a character in Brazil, he was kind of the Robin Hood of that era.

Anna Hall: The Robin Hood? Oh.

Victor Ceron: He always was there to help his people, beat bullies to taking advantage of others. so but the whole name was Kafulinga, but it was easier to say Kafu and then Kafu, my promotor said, you be Kafu, the Brazilian Beast. Right. So. Kafu, it’s me, but he’s got an amplifier that is a hundred times more, right? Like, is because whether if you’re doing wrestling or whether, if you’re working, people can tell when you’re not being you.

Anna Hall: And what’s the impact of not being authentic. What happens when you’re not authentic?

Victor Ceron: How are people going to trust you if you’re not authentic? Again, like reading your crowd. Right. Like reading the people around you. It’s important. It’s knowing the difference when we are talking to colleagues, working with our residents, understanding what they want, but you got to be yourself in order to really, really connect with them. And it’s earning, really earning the trust.

Anna Hall? So was it a difficult decision for you to decide to retire from wrestling?

Victor Ceron: Yeah, it was. So it was one of my last tours, that, you know, was Christmas Eve, You had a lot of people cheering your name, blah, blah, blah, but then when you go back to the hotel room by yourself, hits reality. I’m the guy. that miss all the holidays, birthdays and first days in schools.

Right now, I have my two little ones with Sammy and Ramin. With them I have experienced that for the first time in my life, taking them to the first day in school, picking up from school. So I believe that I have given a precious second opportunity to experience that. And not too many people can say that. So I’m really grateful about that too. But during that time, I was so focused in just getting ahead and not giving up on my dream. Right.

I had my daughter Ruby, is my angel. She’s turning 30 here soon, but I had her really young, too. So had that responsibility. That, to raise a child at the same time. I was a kid myself. So there were so many things that were happening in my life, like,  I mean, I even considered writing a book, some day.

Anna Hall: You will, you will.

Victor Ceron: May I read you a letter that she just sent me two days ago? She said

Dad,

Thank you for giving me the best parts of you, the fun, the laughter, the love, the protection. You protected me from you, she said. I know now I am precious to you. I don’t know what anger looks like on you. Ni fastidio towards me. Fastidio means, like annoyance. She speaks Spanish very well, by the way. You gave me the best parts of you. Your words, your wisdom, the security of not feeling alone. I hope you see your sacrifice in life has paid off when you see me. I am free to be myself with no fear. I’m the best part of you. I’m your Ruby. And to me, you’re my hero. Victor is your name. And you represent it. So strong. You’re generous, kind, ambitious, a leader. I will choose you every lifetime for you to be my dad. You’re always with me because I am you. I love you. Ruby.

Anna Hall: What’s it like to receive a letter like that from your daughter?

Victor Ceron: Oh my God, this. This is what I’m talking about. What I gave to become that wrestler. You know, it’s not easy.

Anna Hall: So, Victor, what brought you to work in senior living?

Victor Ceron: During that time, I was not signed 100% with the WWE. On the on the weekends. I used to go wrestle in the independent circuit. So I worked Monday to Friday and then the weekends I used to be a weekend warrior.

Anna Hall: Literally.

Victor Ceron: So my father, we, built a few communities. We were building one in San Jose, California, and one in Sunnyvale. This is how I fell in love with senior living. The owner asked me, Victor, how, you know, this facility is you kind of build it from the ground up. Why don’t you just stay with us? It was kind of when 9/11 happened in construction and a lot of stuff… So I said, sure, no problem. You know, and I started working there. So that particular company has a memory care and there was a gentleman that moved in there. He he got really close with me. He used to call me Mike. Every time you see me, “Hey Mike, come over here.” He used to be a carpenter. We got to change these windows, and, I mean, I had no idea. I started to learn about memory care, so I always went along and measure the windows. Yeah, sure. No problem.

Anna Hall: By the way Victor that’s the best thing you can do is enter the person who’s living with dementia, enter their reality. And you did that. And that created such connection.

Victor Ceron: Yeah.

Anna Hall: For people living with dementia especially. It’s how you make them feel that that sense of safety.

Victor Ceron: And I didn’t know none of this stuff. Anna, I did not know. And then, I noticed that the family member was there was a daughter and there were other family members there, and I approached them. I said, hey, how are you doing? I’m Victor, I’m the environmental services director for here, and, I have a question for you. Every time your dad sees me, he calls me Mike. this always touches me because, you know, she started crying, like, crying, like, like, oh my God. And I don’t know, I didn’t know, and I’m just was concerned, I made her upset, and I say, oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. No, you’re not upsetting me. She was hugging me. He thinks you’re my brother. That he passed away.

Anna Hall: Oh my goodness.

Victor Ceron: When she told me that I got even closer with him.

Anna Hall: Yeah. What a gift.

Victor Ceron: Yeah. But when he passed away, Anna it devastated me.  On Monday, I went to Carol,  she was the E.D. there and I went, I say, I don’t know if I can do this. I mean, how many times am I going to get close with residents and,  and I’m going to be feeling like this? you know, like, just the selfishness of me not understanding what was happening to me because I didn’t know yet.

Anna Hall: Well also our industry has to do better about preparing people for this because we create incredibly meaningful real relationships among team members and residents. And because it’s the cycle of life death happens. We lose people we love. And it becomes part of the gift that we have of meeting such incredible people. But it’s also challenging. Why did you keep going, then, Victor?

Victor Ceron: What made it harder for me was, he look a lot like my grandpa too. When grandpa died, I didn’t have the means to go back to see him, and, and, go visit him, I don’t want to get religious, but the powers to be here, like, I believe that my grandpa was talking to me through him. That got me even closer, you see?

So when he died,  I remember I went to say, I was willing, that day. I was ready to resign But Carol was incredible.  You know what she said to me, she said, “If you were not made for this work, you wouldn’t be here talking to me today. Go back to work.” But then later on she kind of went down to my shop. It was down in the basement. How you doin? And then she sat down and she said, “Victor, in our industry that’s called, that’s one of our first senior loves, you know, so what you experienced is your first senior love, that  you never gonna forget this. And one day you’re gonna be telling this story.

Anna Hall: That’s why I have stayed in this industry for 25 years. It’s because of love and, and the people that we get to work with are here because they care. It’s, it’s like an affinity group of people who really care about each other. It’s like almost natural community builders.

Victor Ceron: I love it. I love it. I mean you know I think you know I’m on the road a lot with Front Porch.

Anna Hall: You travel to all of our communities because your job is our buildings. Right?

Victor Ceron: Yes.

Anna Hall: I mean your job is the buildings, your specialty is the people.

Victor Ceron: I love the people more than the buildings, even though I enjoy building them. And I’ll tell you why. When I go to all these communities shout out to all my facilities directors. by the way, I hope you get a chance to

Anna Hall: Shout outs.

Victor Ceron: I love them all. They are so amazing. They’re so different. They make the communities.

Anna Hall: A community is not a building. A community is people who are unified by a culture and how to treat each other and who care.

Victor Ceron: That exactly.

Anna Hall: What have you learned about community building in your time at Front Porch? When we went to the merge from Covia to Front Porch. Right.

Anna Hall: Two senior living organizations uniting as one. 

Victor Ceron: Uniting into one.  What the typical human nature will be: “Why are you doing this thing this way?” “Why are you doing that….”

Anna Hall: Or us and them?

Victor Ceron: Exactly. Throughout the process, I have learned so much like,  in this part of us coming together, right? Like, because even though there were some, some differences we found ourselves that we a lot more similar. Then what we think of.

We start growing, together like on this because it’s each of us that have the responsibility of being authentic and, and being open. That’s the start to become a strong community.

Anna Hall: Where everyone can feel they belong.

Victor Ceron: Yes.

Anna Hall: Where everybody plays a role.

Victor Ceron: Yes.

Anna Hall: Everyone matters. The whole premise of the podcast is that every human is incredible and extraordinary. And it’s when we take those unique individuals and bring them together to be what nature wants us to be, which is interconnected and interdependent. We can flourish more together than we do apart.

So your son is interested in professional wrestling now. What’s it like to mentor him?

Victor Ceron: I coached him. Since he’s a little kid – you wake up early in the morning doing push ups, eating right, eating well, the Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, wrestling. Potentially, he was following his old man’s steps. You know, he might. He’d be moving to Florida. You know it’s up to him, I told him I can help you. I can show you the door. You’re the one who’s gotta to walk through it. You know what to do.

Anna Hall: So what’s it like moving from being the star of the show to now mentoring the next generation?

Victor Ceron: I love it, it’s paying forward because somebody did that to me. I enjoy helping other kids and their dreams. I am very honest with them. How it’s not easy. And I keep telling them this, and I believe this in anything that you do in life, If you’re chasing the money right now, guys, you’re in for the long haul here. You have to love it first. You have to be authentic. You have to show that to your fans that you love what you do. It’s all about telling the story in that ring, You’re telling the story so the people can really want to read your story.

Anna Hall: Tell us one more piece of advice about what it means to pay it forward.

Victor Ceron: Yeah so, pay it forward to me is paid with this right here. What you have inside here.

Anna Hall: Your heart.

Victor Ceron: Your heart. And don’t expect nothing. That’s what it means to me.

Anna Hall: Thank you so much for sharing your story and your love and your passion with us on The Front Porch Podcast. We are so blessed to count you as a member of our community.

Victor Ceron: My pleasure, Anna. I really thank you for your you give me the opportunity to talk to our colleagues, show them that I care for them.

Anna Hall: They know. They feel it every day.

Victor Ceron: And we appreciate what they do every day.

Anna Hall: Yes. Thank you to our Front Porch community. We care about you. We love you. We see you. Thank you. Thank you, Victor.

Victor Ceron: Thank you, Anna

Anna Hall: You’ve been listening to The Front Porch Podcast. I’m your host, Anna Hall. Our theme music was composed by Geoven Snaer and Dianne Kae Enriquez. Carmen Elena Mitchell is our producer and editor. Our recording engineer is Jeff Gall. Special thanks to Laura Darling for production and marketing support. And to Joseph Escobar for our show art design.

The Front Porch Podcast is a production of Front Porch Communities and Services. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, please share it with a friend and help others find us by subscribing and leaving a review. We’ll be back soon with more stories from the fascinating folk who live and work at Front Porch. Until then, stay connected and inspired.