[Latino_Lib_Svc] Ask a Mexican

[Kathleen de la Peña McCook]

from the Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com


COLUMN ONE
Inquiring Gringos Want to Know
In 'Ask a Mexican,' a politically incorrect OC Weekly columnist 
fields readers'
frank questions. He's a wiseguy with a cultural objective.

By Daniel Hernandez, Times Staff Writer
February 23 2006

Dear Mexican, Why do Mexicans call white people gringos?

It was the type of impolite question few people would dare ask in 
everyday
Southern California, much less in print.


"Dear Gabacho," began Gustavo Arellano's answer in the OC Weekly 
alternative
newspaper. "Mexicans do not call gringos gringos. Only gringos call 
gringos
gringos. Mexicans call gringos gabachos."

Arellano went on to explain that gabacho is a sometimes pejorative 
slang term
for white Americans, with "its etymological roots in the Castilian 
slur for a
French national."

"Ask a Mexican," the newspaper headlined it.

The column, published in 2004, was meant as a one-time spoof, but 
questions
began pouring in.

Why are there so many elaborate wrought-iron fences in the Mexican 
parts of
town? What part of the word "illegal" do Mexicans not understand? Why 
do
Mexicans pronounce "shower" as "chower" but "chicken" as "shicken"?

Arellano has responded each week, leading an unusually frank 
discussion on the
intersections where broader society meets the largest and most 
visible national
subgroup in the country: Mexicans.

Nothing is taboo. When asked to explain the inclination of Mexicans 
to sell
oranges at freeway offramps, he fired back:

"What do you want them to sell — Steinways? According to Dolores, who 
sells
oranges off the 91 Freeway/Euclid onramp, in Anaheim, she can earn 
almost $100
per week hawking the fruit. That averages out to more than $5,000 a 
year — and
since it's the underground economy, she doesn't pay taxes!"

The questions came from both assimilated Mexican Americans and 
whites, or as
Arellano might say, pochos and gabachos. The newspaper kept 
publishing "Ask a
Mexican," and it quickly became one of its most popular features.



Dear Mexican,

What's with the Mexican need to display the Virgin of Guadalupe 
everywhere? I've
seen her in the oddest places, from a sweatshirt to a windshield 
sticker. As a
Mexican, I find it a little offensive and tacky to display this 
religious
symbol everywhere.

Dear Pocha,


 I've seen her painted on murals, woven into fabulous silk shirts 
worn by
Stetson-sporting hombres and — one holy night — in my bowl of 
guacamole. But
while I share your disdain for the hypocrites who cross themselves in 
Her
presence before they sin
. I don't find public displays of the 
Empress of the
Americas offensive at all.

Mexican Catholicism is sublime precisely because it doesn't draw a 
distinction
between the sacred and the profane. We can display our saints as 
comfortably in
a cathedral as we do on hubcaps.

Arellano, a 27-year-old reporter and fourth-generation Orange County 
resident,
has taken his "Ask a Mexican" personality to radio and other print 
outlets. He
has found receptive audiences in unlikely places, even conservative 
talk radio.

"Ask a Mexican" is historically and culturally accurate, in some 
cases painfully
so, while pushing the edges of modern political correctness. Its logo 
depicts a
stereotypical Mexican peon, complete with bushy mustache, large 
sombrero and a
single shiny gold tooth.

"There isn't any politically correct bridge that you have to walk 
over; you're
just right there," Sasha Anawalt, director of arts journalism 
fellowship
programs at USC's Annenberg School for Communication, said about 
Arellano's
column. "His writing kind of tackles you."

At times, it can also sound like the work of a graduate student — 
which Arellano
once was. His response to the "shicken" question included references 
to native
Indian languages and linguapalatal fricatives.

But under it all, "Ask a Mexican" is imbued with affection for 
Mexican
immigrants, which may explain its appeal among Mexican Americans who 
might
otherwise take offense.



Dear Mexican, [some female readers asked]

Why do Mexican women dress up to go to the swap meet? 
. Why do 
Mexicans put on
their Sunday best to shop at Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, etc.?

Dear Pochas,


 You gotta love our moms and aunts, ¿qué no? Despite living in 
abject
conditions, never having enough money to purchase vaccines for the 
kids — let
alone save up for a Prada this or Manolo that — Mexican women always 
primp
themselves for something as simple as buying tortillas."



Arellano, who is also the OC Weekly food editor, never fancied 
himself a
newspaper columnist. The small-framed, quick-witted and admitted self-
promoter
had a vision of being a Harvard history professor by the time he was 
26. "And I
would've done it, too."

He was a film student at Chapman University in Orange when he began 
reading the
OC Weekly. He wrote to its editor, Will Swaim, suggesting story 
ideas. Swaim
was impressed and asked Arellano to write the stories himself.

Arellano resisted at first, but Swaim pressed him. Arellano began 
writing about
the Orange County he knew, including school board politics and his 
family
history in Anaheim, his hometown. Meanwhile, he entered graduate 
school at
UCLA, where he earned a master's in Latin American studies.

As a reporter, Arellano, who calls himself a "good Catholic boy," 
aggressively
covered the sexual abuse scandal in the Diocese of Orange and 
allegations of
corruption against Orange County Latino activist Nativo V. Lopez. He 
also wrote
one of the earliest profiles of Jim Gilchrist, the Aliso Viejo 
activist who
began the border-watching Minuteman Project.

Arellano is driven by a strong sense of loyalty to Orange County. He 
describes
it as the "Ellis Island of the 21st century," a place where a large 
immigrant
population belies the myth of the county as a bastion of white 
conservatives
and big-spending decadence.

"We didn't have to go outside of our little enclave to experience 
Mexican
culture," Arellano said, recalling weekends of Mass attendance, 
girls'
quinceañeras and relatives' baby showers.



Dear Mexican,

I've noticed that areas with lots of recent Mexican immigrants have 
stores that
sell nothing but water. I find this very odd. Do people recently 
arrived from
Mexico not know that tap water here is potable?

Dear Gabacha,

Mexicans can never get far from the bottle, whether it's H2O or 
Herradura. In a
2002 survey, the Public Policy Institute of California found that 55% 
of
Latinos in the state drink bottled water, compared with 30% of 
gabachos. It's
definitely a custom smuggled over from Mexico, where tap water 
remains fraught
with nasty viruses and bugs.



The column was born when Swaim approached Arellano with an off-the-
wall idea:
Explain the humor behind a Spanish-language radio advertisement Swaim 
saw on
the side of a bus. At first, Arellano saw the concept as an easy way 
to make
readers chuckle. But in time he realized there was more to "Ask a 
Mexican" than
that.

"The people who write in — they have this preconceived notion of what 
a Mexican
is," Arellano said. "I answer their question, but in a way that's 
either going
to flip the stereotype or going to explode it."

Similar to comedians who satirize their own cultures, including Dave 
Chappelle
and Jeff Foxworthy, Arellano critiques the biases and prejudices of 
Mexicans
and non-Mexicans equally. He freely draws attention to some of the 
nastier
elements of Mexican culture, such as strains of sexism, homophobia 
and
prejudices against other ethnic groups.

"I'm being exotic so that we can remember we're not exotic," Arellano 
said. "In
any minority group, you're always going to have this stigma that you 
perpetuate
on yourself. 'Oh, we're a minority, we're a minority.' My response is 
'We're not
a minority. Let's get over that and just say, All right, these are 
the problems
we have.' "

Dear Mexican,

As an Asian person, would I be considered a gabacho? Or do I fall 
into the
yellow bucket labeled chinito, even though I'm not Chinese?

Dear Chino,

Like Americans assume all Latinos are Mexican, Mexicans think all 
Asians are
chinos — Chinese. When I used to go out with a Vietnamese woman, my 
aunts would
speak highly of mi chinita bonita — my cute little Chinese ruca
. 
Chinese were
the Mexicans of the world before there even was a Mexico, migrating 
to Latin
America a couple of decades after the fall of Tenochtitlán.



Like other readers, Sali Heraldez, owner of a gallery in Santa Ana, 
said her
first instinct was to be offended by "Ask a Mexican." But she 
couldn't deny the
column's allure.

"In every culture there are things that people do that are just 
funny," Heraldez
said. "He doesn't just throw out a racist comment; he actually puts 
history
behind it. Some of them are just plain funny, like why do Mexicans 
honk instead
of going up to knock when they're picking up friends?"

Some readers remain unconvinced that "Ask a Mexican" is a good thing 
to publish.
Swaim said he occasionally received calls or e-mails demanding that 
Arellano be
fired.

"Not only am I a fellow Mexican American, but I'm also an American 
veteran of
Desert Storm," one offended reader wrote in a letter the newspaper 
published.
"I know I didn't fight for a country that portrays Mexicans the way 
your
magazine does. You even allow them to ask racist questions that you 
have no
problems answering."

Yet the column has appeal across the ideological spectrum. Since 
April, Arellano
has been taking listeners' questions live on the air on the 
conservative talk
radio program "The Al Rantel Show" on KABC-AM (790).

"I'm a frothing-at-the-mouth right-winger," said "Al Rantel Show" 
producer John
Phillips, who contacted Arellano about doing "Ask a Mexican" on the 
radio. "The
thing that Gustavo and Al and I have in common is, he's absolutely as
politically incorrect as they come. He has no problem saying things 
on his mind
that he believes may or may not offend others."

After the first time "Ask a Mexican" hit the airwaves, Phillips asked 
Arellano
back. During a recent in-studio visit to the program, Arellano took a 
question
from a caller named Cheryl, who started off by saying, "My question 
is, why do
Hispanic people — "

"Mexicans," Arellano interrupted.

"OK, Mexicans. Thank you," Cheryl said. "Why do they graffiti 
everywhere?"

"Those guys are honors students and they're just practicing," 
Arellano said,
adding later, "Graffiti is really the last resort of people who don't 
have
anything else to do."

Alexandro Gradilla, an assistant professor of Chicano and Chicana 
studies at Cal
State Fullerton, said that even 10 years ago, an uproar would have 
followed
publication of Arellano's constant jokes about Guatemalans. Arellano 
satirizes
what he insists is Mexicans' disdain for immigrants from that small 
nation to
their south: "Guatemalans are the Mexicans of Mexico. And who doesn't 
hate
Mexicans?"



Dear Mexican,

I am a Mexicana who is dating a gabacho. My gabacho always asks me 
why you see
Mexicans lying in the grass under a tree
. ¿Por qué?

Dear Pocha,


 Mexicans, unlike gabachos, are good public citizens who know that 
parkland is
best used for whittling the afternoon away underneath an oak, a salsa-
stained
paper plate and an empty six-pack of Tecate tossed to the side.



What makes such talk acceptable — or at least tolerable — today?

"I think our generation of artists, intellectuals — we're not 
concerned with the
same issues, nor do we try to hide our contradictions" as earlier 
generations
did, Gradilla said. He added, "Nor does he gloss over the deep 
divisions that
exist in this community — that is, between Mexican Americans and 
Mexican
immigrants. More people identify with that than with this politically
convenient, united front perspective."

Arellano is also "one of these home-bred intellectuals who can talk 
about Orange
County in a way that is not being captured in the popular media," 
Gradilla said.
"He talks about the O.C. that is ignored."

The columnist sees his work as filling a vacuum.

"A lot of my activist friends say, why do you go on a conservative 
talk show?
Nobody else is doing it," Arellano said at a restaurant in Santa Ana 
that
specializes in food from the Mexican state of Puebla. Nearby, a group 
of day
laborers wailed the day's sweat away with a few songs over a guitar.

"People who don't like Mexicans — nobody is actively engaging them 
unless it's a
protest and they're separated by police," he added.

Arellano pondered this for a moment, then launched into another 
biting joke:
"There's a lot of liberals who hate Mexicans too. I hate a lot of 
Mexicans, for
that matter.

"People from Jalisco are evil. I'm from Zacatecas, and they're right 
next to us.
There's always drama."