AAN News
Man Suspended for Sharing '¡Ask a Mexican!' Isn't Suing His Employernew
But Robert Diefenbach tells the Oregonian he would like his record cleared of the racial and sexual harassment charges that accompanied his suspension last year after sharing Gustavo Arellano's popular syndicated column. He still reads '¡Ask a Mexican!' and even received an autographed column from Arellano, who has gained at least a few readers as a result of the brouhaha. "I've had people come up to me and say they're really glad this came up because they discovered him," Diefenbach says.
The Oregonian |
04-02-2007 10:43 am |
Industry News
Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You: ¡Ask a Mexican!new
That's right: OC Weekly writer Gustavo Arellano's popular syndicated (and AltWeekly Award winning) column has spawned a book, aptly titled ¡Ask a Mexican!. Arellano says the hardcover book, a collection of some of his best columns, is due out May 1. In a review, Publishers Weekly says Arellano "wittily defuses bigotry and mocks stereotypes," adding: "The author's relentless irony and reclamation of derogatory terms is not for the faint of heart, but this approach is a welcome reprieve from common tiptoeing around the fraught subjects of race relations and immigration."
Publishers Weekly (Seventh item) |
03-28-2007 9:40 am |
Industry News
'Ask a Mexican!' Kerfuffle Leaves Employee 'Feeling Leery and Hurt'new
Late last year, Richard Diefenbach was suspended from his job in Newport, Ore., for five days without pay, and accused of racial discrimination and sexual harassment for sharing a copy of Gustavo Arellano's politically incorrect syndicated column with a co-worker. Diefenbach tells The Oregonian that the incident had a deleterious impact. "I have to weigh everything twice before I say it now," he says. "I felt like my organization branded me as something I am not, a racist and a sexist -- a horrible person." Arellano says "Ask a Mexican!" is now syndicated in 21 weeklies with a combined readership of 1.3 million. CORRECTION: Arellano tells us his column is syndicated in papers with a combined circulation (i.e., not readership) of 1.3 million.
The Oregonian |
01-30-2007 2:33 pm |
Industry News
Man Suspended From Work for Sharing 'Ask a Mexican'new
Richard Diefenbach read Gustavo Arellano's syndicated column for the first time in the Weekly Alibi, while on vacation in Albuquerque. He was so enthused with the column -- which that week addressed readers' questions about "the Mexican love affair with chicken and similarities between Mexicans and the Irish," according to Arellano -- that when he returned to work in his hometown of Newport, Ore., he printed a copy and gave it to a Mexican-American co-worker. The following day Diefenbach was suspended from work for five days without pay, accused of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.
OC Weekly |
01-09-2007 5:13 pm |
Industry News
NPR Picks Up OC Weekly Story Questioning Philanthropistnew
"All Things Considered" reporter Howard Berkes last week broadcast a segment based on a story by OC Weekly writer Gustavo Arellano that questioned the motives of local charity "Snowball Express," which brings the families of Iraq war casualties to Disneyland. Arellano found that the charity's organizer, Michael Scott Kerr, owes about $50,000 in child support in Arizona, where there is an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
National Public Radio |
12-18-2006 12:41 pm |
Industry News
¡Ask a Mexican!, Just Not in Spanish
"It's troubling ... to know that some people actually get upset when a U.S.-born-and-bred Latino isn't fully fluent in Spanish," Gustavo Arellano writes in a Los Angeles Times editorial published Monday. Arellano is a reporter for OC Weekly and the author of the controversial syndicated ¡Ask a Mexican! column. He explains that his parents taught him a rural Mexican dialect, which became "mangled" after he attended a public school where he only spoke English. The criticism of Arellano's Spanish intensified after a June appearance on The Colbert Report, but he swears he doesn't care: "I'm an English-language columnist; it's my job to help Americans understand Mexicans, not to write the next Don Quixote."
08-31-2006 8:12 am |
Industry News
Stephen Colbert 'Asks a Mexican'
We're a little slow in posting this, but OC Weekly's Guastavo Arellano -- who just won a first-place AltWeekly Award for his column -- was the guest on Monday's episode of The Colbert Report (available for download on iTunes). Colbert initially called the column "Ask THE Mexican," and according to Arellano's blog post, also mispronounced his name, but the two still managed to discuss topics ranging from immigration to little people. Arellano tried to provide a legitimate Aztec cultural background on the latter topic, but Colbert evidently thought the explanation was too sophisticated so he interrupted, asking, "Are you speaking Spanish right now?"
06-23-2006 7:04 pm |
Industry News
Weekly Alibi Asks a Mexican, Hears From Readers
After picking up OC Weekly's syndicated "Ask a Mexican" column, Editor Steven Robert Allen writes, the newspaper received "plenty of positive responses" but also "lots of angry calls and e-mails from people -- both Latinos and Anglos -- saying [the column is] promoting hate speech and negative racial stereotypes." Allen interviews the author, Gustavo Arellano, about the column's genesis and subsequent fallout. "Especially during these times, which are so contentious and fraught with animosity, when you have a column that's addressing these issues, not in a namby-pamby way but as blisteringly as possible, people want to read that," Arellano says.
05-04-2006 11:22 am |
Industry News
'Ask a Mexican' Writer: Column Is 'Meant To Be Inflammatory'
"Ask a Mexican" is "an indictment of the American mind and how it, for whatever reason, cannot accept Mexicans ever becoming Americans," OC Weekly columnist Gustavo Arellano said in an interview with NPR's On the Media last Friday. "The fact that this column exists truly is a joke, and the fact that I have to answer these questions is ridiculous. That said, I will answer these questions to confront all of those stereotypes and really the pitiful nature of the American mind that cannot accept Mexicans being in this country." Arellano also criticized other Mexican and Latino members of the media for focusing on positive stereotypes, which he called "a disservice to Mexican or Latino society or culture."
04-06-2006 12:11 pm |
Industry News
Ask a Mexican -- Now in Syndication
03-23-2006 9:05 am |
Press Releases
OC Weekly's 'Ask a Mexican' Pushes PC Boundaries
Originally published in 2004 as a one-time spoof, Gustavo Arellano's "Ask a Mexican" has taken on a life of its own, landing the 27-year-old reporter and editor a regular gig on a right-wing talk radio show as well as the front page of today's Los Angeles Times. In his weekly column, Arellano answers the kind of frank questions about Mexican stereotypes (e.g., "Why do Mexicans put on their Sunday best to shop at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, etc.?") that aren't normally asked in polite society. According to the Times, he gets away with it because his writing is "historically and culturally accurate" and "imbued with affection for Mexican immigrants." But not everyone is thrilled. OC Weekly Editor Will Swaim tells the Times he still fields the occasional call or e-mail demanding that Arellano be fired.
02-23-2006 1:31 pm |
Industry News
OC Weekly Writer Named Annenberg Senior Fellow
Gustavo Arellano was selected to participate in the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication seminar, "Latinization of Art and Culture in America: Understanding Its Impact and Why It Matters," which will be held the third week of October. Twenty-two fellows were honored with an invitation, but only Arellano and Augustin Gurza of the LA Times were named senior fellows; they are expected to assume leadership roles for the duration of the conference. Arellano was the recipient of an AAN Diversity Internship grant in 2002.
09-21-2005 10:34 am |
Industry News
OC Weekly Reporter Awarded Prestigious Scholarshipnew
The Religion Newswriters Association has awarded news and investigative reporter Gustavo Arellano a Lilly Scholarship for his reportage on the child-abuse scandal in the Catholic Diocese of Orange County, Calif. According to an OC Weekly press release, he is one of just seven winners for 2004. The non-profit and nonpartisan association awards the scholarships to allow writers to pursue religious studies.
OC Weekly Press Release |
11-10-2004 5:59 pm |
Industry News
OC Weekly Reporter Awarded Prestigious Scholarship
11-10-2004 5:15 pm |
Press Releases
Latino Coverage Is Crucial for Many Alt-Weeklies
According to the latest U.S. census, Latinos are now the country's largest
minority group. With this in mind, the question of how alt-weeklies serve
this important segment of the population becomes one of increased urgency. Marty Levine reports for AAN News on how papers from Miami, Fla., to Columbus, Ohio, to Orange County, Calif., are addressing the issue of Latino coverage in their area. It may surprise no one that, for each paper, the questions
-- as well as the answers -- are unique to the community they serve.
(FULL STORY)
Marty Levine |
06-15-2004 6:06 pm |
Industry News
