In case you hadn’t heard, LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano is a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary and I’m rooting for him. His columns over the past two years have been exceptionally sharp and a must read. He’s been nominated for the category of columns, including a travelogue that told the stories of Latino communities across the Southwest U.S, last fall leading up to the election.
As the Trump administration’s assault on immigrants will surely continue until 2028, his voice, perspective and experience are important. I just hope the Times’ recent rightward slant doesn’t get in the way of his work. Arellano’s second book, Orange County: A Personal History, is back on the shelves at Arvida Books in Tustin, down the street from my office and it worth a read for his family’s history in Mexico and in the US (His first book, “Ask a Mexican” is still his best).
And so his head doesn’t get too big, avoid any column of his about sports. But Buena Suerte on the Pulitzer, Gustavo. You deserve it.
Update: Close, but it only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and drive-in movies.
Gustavo lost out to:
Mr. Mosab Abu Toha was honored for “essays on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience of more than a year and a half of war with Israel,” the committee said.
Dan, nobody gave even one shit for Gustavo. That’s why the OC Weekly no longer exists
OC Weekly was an alt-weekly and the pandemic pretty much klled them all off. OC Weekly outlasted the Village Voice, the Boston Phoenix and the LA Weekly. The bigger question is what happened to R. Scott Moxley?
Actually, the bigger question is why Duncan McIntosh didn’t shitcan Gus sooner. The Weekly was always a fun read until Gus turned it into a predictable, formulaic shadow of its former self. Under Arellano’s leadership it churned out cookie cutter editions that followed the same tired formula. By the time Arellano finished with the paper, it was basically unreadable and was used as a pad for potty training puppies or to start a barbecue in your charcoal chimney. Watching you suck up to a no talent race baiter like Arellano is good comedy in its own right. Don’t stop.