- published: 21 Apr 2011
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¡Ask a Mexican! is a syndicated weekly newspaper column written by Gustavo Arellano in the Orange County, California, United States alternative weekly OC Weekly. "¡Ask a Mexican!" was first published in 2004 as a one-time spoof, but it ended up becoming one of the weekly's most popular columns.
Every week, readers submit their questions based on Mexicans, including their customs, labor issues, and illegal immigration. Arellano responds to two queries a week in a politically incorrect manner often starting with the words "Dear Gabacho." The column now appears in 37 newspapers across the country and has a weekly circulation of over 2 million. Arellano has won numerous awards for the column, including the 2006 and 2008 Best Non-Political Column in a large-circulation weekly from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the 2007 Presidents Award from the Los Angeles Press Club and an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and a 2008 Latino Spirit award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus.
Since 2004, Gustavo Arellano has written the wildly popular - and wildly politically incorrect - Ask a Mexican! column in the OC Weekly. In each installment, the California-born Arellano answers reader queries about Mexican-American mores that rarely come up in day-to-day conversation. Recent entries have discussed whether it's safe to shop for prescription drugs in border towns, why Mexicans eat so many tortillas, and if it's common for Mexican men to wear necklaces bearing their mothers' names (it's not, cautions Arellano, and probably a sign that a particular hombre has a chica south of the border). The column, Arellano told Reuters, "started off as a joke. It was supposed to be just a satirical take on xenophobia against Mexicans and it just exploded." The column now appears in abo...
Guest author to Costa Mesa Donald Dungan Branch: Gustavo Arellano as filmed by Oc Stories. www.OCstories.com
From his website: Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, author of Orange County: A Personal History and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, and lecturer with the Chicana and Chicano Studies department at California State University, Fullerton. He writes "¡Ask a Mexican!," a nationally syndicated column in which he answers any and all questions about America's spiciest and largest minority. The column has a weekly circulation of over 2 million in 39 newspapers across the United States, won the 2006 and 2008 Association of Alternative Weeklies award for Best Column, and was published in book form by Scribner Press in May 2007. Arellano has been the subject of press coverage in national and international newspapers, The T...
Journalist Gustavo Arellano gave the keynote speech at the UCLA College of Letters and Science commencement on June 11, 2010.
Learn more about Ask a Mexican at http://books.simonandschuster.ca/Ask-a-Mexican/Gustavo-Arellano/9781416540038?mcd=vd_youtube_book Gustavo Arellano talks about how his upbringing lead him to write "Orange County."
Learn more about Gustavo Arellano at http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Gustavo-Arellano/41549436?mcd=vd_youtube_author Gustavo Arellano talks about the questions he gets most from readers.
Learn more about Orange County at http://books.simonandschuster.ca/Orange-County/Gustavo-Arellano/9781416540052?mcd=vd_youtube_book Visit the "real" OC with Gustavo Arellano, author of "Ask a Mexican" and ""Orange County: A Personal History."
April 10, 2012 The Chicano Studies Research Center welcomes nationally syndicated columnist, bestselling author of ¡Ask a Mexican!, and UCLA alum Gustavo Arellano reading from and discussing his latest book, "Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America" (Scribner, 2012). An entertaining, tasty trip through the history and culture of Mexican food in this country, Arellano's new book charts the cuisine's tremendous popularity in el Norte. "Taco USA" addresses the all-important questions: What exactly constitutes "Mexican" food in the United States? How did it get here? What's "authentic" and what's Taco Bell, and does it matter? What's so cosmic about a burrito? And why do Americans love Mexican food so darn much?