Gustavo Arellano, writer and columnist on Latino culture, will speak on “Humor in a Caliente Vein: Satire and its Relationship to Saving the Mexican Race,” Thursday, March 26, at noon, in the Hampton Room, Malott Commons. The event, part of the Alexa Fullerton Hampton Speaker Series: Voice and Vision, is free and open to the public.
Arellano is a staff writer with OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County and a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Op/Ed pages. He is a frequent guest on liberal and conservative radio talk shows, where he discusses local and national issues. Arellano also writes “¡Ask a Mexican!,” a nationally syndicated column in which he answers any and all questions about America’s largest minority; in 2006, it won the 2006 Association of Alternative Weeklies award for Best Column.
According to Arellano, ¡Ask a Mexican! provides “questions and answers about our spiciest Americans. I explore the clichés of lowriders, busboys, and housekeepers; drunks and scoundrels; heroes and celebrities; and most important, millions upon millions of law-abiding, patriotic American citizens and their illegal-immigrant cousins who represent some $600 billion in economic power.”
¡Ask a Mexican!, first published on Cinco de Mayo in 2007, has received widespread coverage in a variety of news venues including: the Los Angeles Times, Mexico City’s El Universal newspaper, The Today Show, Nightline, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s The Hour, and The Colbert Report. Arellano’s commentaries on Latino culture appear regularly on radio and in newspapers, and his journalism has covered topics from the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Diocese of Orange to profiling a disabled Latino veteran of the Iraq War.
Doors to the Hampton room will open at 11:45 a.m. Attendees may bring a lunch or purchase one at the Malott Commons downstairs; doors to the commons open at 11:15 a.m. Dessert and coffee will be provided at the event.
A book-signing will follow the event; books will be available for purchase both before and after the talk. For more information, call (909) 607-9372.