....and has had various radio and film personalities contact him. Most recently,he has spoken at Universities and his words of amazement, "double rainbow, all the way" have become iconic and have been used in TV shows and even movies. Recently the it was used by one of the Cheerios in the superbowl episode of Glee. I also found this photo using his amazement in Marvel comics (THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER is Double Rainbow) .Notice the little catch phrase at the bottom right of the comic. ...all the way.

They didn't leave anything out. He has finally seen a little money for the notoriety/fame of his video. He now is staring in a Microsoft commercial.

I interviewed Paul Vasquez via email some time ago. Since then he has become even more famous. At first I just went on his site to see if there was anything else interesting. There were lots of videos that displayed the wonder of Yosemite where he lives and also some interesting videos of his family. Always thinking about material for The Sage Journal, I decided to try to get in touch with him and see if I could get the story about, “The Man Behind the Double Rainbow.”

Many off-hand remarks were made; talking about whether he has high on drugs when he made the video...so I asked him. He said he wasn't. He's just very emotional and it just hit him that way. I sent him a message and he emailed me back. I found that the man behind the double rainbow's name is Paul Vasquez. His username is hungrybear. He lives on the edge of the Yosimite Mountains and has created a simple life for himself living off the land as much as possible. I thought he was a Native American initially because of the many shots of his children in Indian regalia. But his story starts down in east LA.

Paul's Bio:

He said, “I was born in East LA to young parents, it was a very violent place both in my home and outside my home. I was a hyperactive kid and tended to need to be out of the house to survive. I was not a great student in school but after school I was able to get the training that I wanted and became a firefighter for LA County Fire Dept.”

Paul's father died young in 1985 which caused him to think outside the box about his life and he decided to move to Yosemite. He wanted to ive and work in Yosemite and in August 1985 when he was 22 years old, he decided he loved it and wanted to stay but it was not a place you can just do that. You had to work there to live there and it was a tough place to make a career at.

He ended up meeting a Yosemite Indian woman who is a decedent of the original Indians who inhabited Yosemite Valley at first contact in the 1850's, her mother had been born in Yosemite Valley and it was something he decided he wanted.

Paul ended up marrying her and they have two Yosemite Indian children together. They divorced almost 15 years ago but still live close and he said, “I have an amazing relationship with my children.” Paul said, “I lived and worked in Yosemite from 1985 to 1994 and from 1994 to 2004 I drove long haul truck, but had to stop because I was going to die from obesity. I was 465 lb. I figured I was going to fight for my life so I was going to fight for real and got into cage-fighting. I figured getting my ass kicked was a good motivator to train, if I didn't train hard I would get my ass kicked because I always planned to fight.

My intentions worked out I did get a fight against a guy who was 6'8" 425 lb who was fighting his 8th fight.” “The thing was five days before my fight I tore my rotator cuff and my left arm didn't work so I fought this giant with basically one arm tied behind my back. I had a blast, there was absolutely no fear what so ever. I got inside his head and told him it should be fun and wore a Yosemite Indian Tee Shirt and he respected me for fighting him. It was fun; I lost but at one point I knocked him down and I didn't get hurt.” “They paid me $500 for the fight and now I am listed on Shurdog as a professional fighter. I have lost 175 lb, I'm down to about 290 lb now.

At one point I was down to 265 when I was training in Jiu Jitsu last spring but I broke my ankle and it's set me back but I'm finally on the mend. I bought my land in 1988, it was raw land, I developed it all by myself. I have my own well, septic, 25 fruit trees, 3 green houses, 15 chickens and 8 wild turkeys. I breed Queensland Heelers for cash I have bred 105 of these dogs.”

Paul now makes a living from breeding dogs, and from his photography and selling Double Rainbow merchandise. He feels this happened so he could get his land powered with solor energy. The fact that he paid his land off a long time ago and does not require very much money helps. He said,” I live a very frugal life style with very little money, I grow some of the food I eat, I don't go very many places, I walk very lightly on the Mother.” I hope that Paul can hang on to his simple lifestyle. Good Luck...Sincerely. Sage