Recent Posts

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCXVI: My Speech to UC Irvine’s School of Social Ecology

Gentle cabrones:As I said last week, the canto this week is a day late for a reason:I had to give a commencement speech to UC Irvine's School of Social Ecology.I always like to publish such talks — except the one that b...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCXV: Luis J. Rodriguez Runs for Governor of California

Gentle cabrones:Before we get to Luis, I gotta start with chisme.This past Friday, I was supposed to accompany the award-winning author to a lecture he was going to give at Manual Arts High School in South L.A. It was a...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCXIV: Be a Keeper

Years ago, I went to the funeral of a guy.A good guy. Gone too soon. About my age. I went more out of respect to him and our profession than anything — we were friendly, but not friends.So I thought.At one point during ...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCXIII: The Real Lesson of “Taco USA”

Gentle cabrones:A decade ago, I landed in Tucson with something to prove.I was a couple of weeks into the debut of my third book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. The first two signings were well attended b...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCXI: Take the Armenian Beatdown

Gentle cabrones:Tonight, Canelo Álvarez will fight before a sold-out crowd, and hundreds of thousands more people watching at home via pay-per-view or Twitter. It’s the annual tradition of a big boxing match for the Cin...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCX: Water Deep

Gentle cabrones:This past Thursday was the third anniversary of the death of my mother from ovarian cancer. But I didn’t visit her grave on that day — I did what she would’ve want...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCIX: Help Frog

Gentle cabrones:There was once...someone. Used to like me until they didn't — then they hated me.They would talk shit about me behind my back and in front of me. Got worse once my...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCVII: Bien Vestidito

Gentle cabrones:“Ven bien vestido,” my dad said before we went to go visit my Tío Gabriel yesterday.Come well dressed.It’s something my mom used to tell me too, although she would...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCVI: Check Your Hoses

Gentle cabrones:Soon after we bought our house about a decade ago, we began to buy rain barrels.We must’ve been in a drought at that point — and haven’t we always been in drought ...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCV: Los Que Vengan, Vengan

Gentle cabrones:Spoke at Concordia University in Irvine this past week — it went okay, I think.I was asked to speak to the question “What is Truth?” — a heady topic, but par ...

Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CCIV: See Me/We Read My/Our Book/Books!

Gentle cabrones:This might be the shortest, most unimaginative canto you'll ever get, because it has just one purpose:SEE ME/WE/READ MY/OUR BOOK/BOOKS!Truth in advertising, you kn...

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