Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

Sure, it’s a serious subject, but O.C. Weekly columnist Gustavo Arellano takes a humorous look at the controversies surrounding the immigration issue in his column “Ask a Mexican.” Purporting to offer the Mexican perspective to confused “gabachos” (white people), Arellano tackles issues from citizenship to “anchor babies,” taking on the “Know-Nothings” and “Loud Dobbs.”

Some readers write in asking about etiquette (“Is there a polite way to ask Mexicans about their immigration status?”), or about the meaning of Spanish terms (”Dear Mexican: What’s with calling yourselves “La Raza”? Being Mexicans, Chicanos or whatever isn’t enough—now you’re THE race? Sounds pretty racist to me.”)

Arellano, a Mexican-American reporter at the alternative weekly, started the column as a joke in 2004, after his editor was baffled by a Spanish billboard and suggested Arellano have readers send in similar questions. Arellano, who looks nothing like the somewhat offensive caricature that is the column’s logo, has a knack for offending everybody, but his column lightens up the immigration debate, and might even shed some light on Mexican culture (like that corn tortillas are superior to flour).