"I was five when my mom caught me and I taught I was really going to get it. Instead she said, ‘Do you really want to learn?’ Then she made dad’s guitar accessible when my father, Antonio, who worked on a ranch, was gone from Monday to Friday. On weekends, I would see and hear him and my Uncles play. That’s how I learned.

"My parents knew I loved that guitar and when I misbehaved at school, they would punish me by taking the guitar away."

As soon as he was tall enough, his father took him to a compadre who handmade the string instruments and had Valderrama pick out his own guitar.

"My mother then forced my brother and me to sing and learn lyrics to songs my dad performed at fiestas and wound up joining him on those gigs around Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Next Valderrama found out he had the innate gift of being able to duplicate any guitar sounds on his maternal grandmother’s piano. She, Angela Terrazas, was so impressed, she sent him to the music conservatory in Mexico, D.F. to study for four years.

"In 1972, a few classmates and I went to see Santana when did three concerts in Puebla. However, on the third night, we hung around outside with about 100 other people from the conservatory because we didn’t have the money for admission," the 59-year-old guitarist said.

As luck would have it, movie soundtrack composer Sergio Gutiérrez plus actors Héctor Lechuga and Xavier López Rodríguez a.k.a. Chabelo saw the group of diehard dedicated fans and paid for all of them to go in. At one point in the show, Santana asked the audience if anyone wanted to come up on stage and play with him and all of Valderrama’s friends pointed to him, then they and his friend, Javier Batiz, dragged him all the way to the stage, but Valderrama refused to go up. However, he did stay there to watch his idol in action.

"That party was the max for me," Valderrama said with a joyful face.

After hearing Valderrama play, Santana pulled him aside and said, "Never stop playing."

"That was the inspiration to continue in my studies, excel and become the guitarist I always dreamt of becoming. In 1973, I recorded with Sangre Chicana and after I finished my studies in 1975, I went to El Paso and formed Talisman, a rock’n’roll band.

"I left Mexico because I loved rock’n’roll and I was dedicated to this music," he explained of his move.

Although he was a tremendous singer, with the exception of some harmonies, Valderrama had never sung in English, but he could imitate. And in spite of having performed with the greatest Mexican musicians, he decided to come to a complete halt and he entered the regular workforce laboring at various jobs in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee as he followed the crops, be it be tomatoes, green peppers or other.

After a 20 year hiatus, the extraordinary guitarist moved to Austin, got a job in structural metal and started practicing again.

Today, Valderrama is paying it forward by making musical dreams come true.

"I love to teach because I love music so much, but I not only teach, I also give them the instrument," he stated.

"Those we are unable to resell and we have to throw them away. So I take them out of bins, trash cans, then I fix them and give them away; and sometimes it’s as simple as tightening a screw."

"If I could buy them I would. Unfortunately I can’t afford to buy to give. I also have a lot of free time, so I love to teach at the flea market without compensation because I’m there all day long.

"I do so because no one wanted to teach me when I was a child. However, if the students don’t study, they cannot continue."

"He’s all heart," student Tibisay Wong said. "Music is therapy and giving a child the gift of music is great therapy."

Christie Wagoner, another student added, "He does a lot of worthwhile things, but he does not want attention."

"Music is so big and I reach such a high level of spiritually that it is selfish not to share it," the guitar Santa Claus said of his good deeds.

As for himself, Valderrama greatest personal satisfaction is playing his guitar at different open mikes in Austin and San Antonio.

"Sometimes bands offer me money to, but I don’t pursue money by playing. I don’t live to be on stage and have hundreds of people cheering," he said. "I just want to play and achieve a certain level."

In closing Wong said, "His style is like Santana, yet his music is different and he makes his guitar sing."