Arellano in the News Again: This Time on CNN

Ask-a-Mexican scribe Gustavo Arellano was featured on CNN yesterday. Click here for the video, and, most likely, if you screen it twice, a commercial.

Our Chicano mouthpiece with/for/against/in/as Mexican and Latina/o stereotypes does a nice job taking CNN's reporter on a Santa Ana, CA odyssey which includes (watch closely!): a culinary adventure with mango and chile; Arellano shamelessly flirting with fetching Kara Finnstrom (you manly Lothario, you!); a gawking, trucker-hatted Mexicano eavesdropping on the interview (a Derridean moment if there ever was one); and, lastly, Finnstrom, in an attempt to render Arellano more even-handed than he is (who the f*** wants to be even-handed), using clever editing to make it seem even Arellano thinks all Mexicans (cut to grainy archive shot of Ellis Island exiles) are god-damned lazy for not kowtowing to the beloved mother tongue, the tasty Kool-Aid/Mother's Milk of the royal language of the land, English! No snide comments please, that your Mexican galleryblogger is a Chair of an English Department himself please. I get it! I know!

nota bene: Meet the Mexican!

Globetrotting Arellano will be reading/signing his hot tamale tome, Ask-a-Mexican, his new, best-selling Scribner's book, at 2pm in the Love Library, SDSU, November 28, 2007 as part of literature.sdsu.edu's Fall 2007 Living Writers series that include Bill Luvaas and Carolyn Forche.

Here's a taste of his sass-filled prose:

Carlos Mencia and Graffiti
Does the bean dare call the beaner brown?
By Gustavo Arellano
Published: October 4, 2007

Subject(s): Carlos Mencia, Mexicans and graffiti

Dear Mexican,

I'm a minority, and I know we can be overly sensitive sometimes, but I just can't stand Carlos Mencia. Not only are his jokes asinine, but I feel they are actually racist. Whereas Dave Chappelle tried to make fun of society's racist thoughts, Mencia seems to promote them. I know black folk liked Chappelle, but how do Mexicans feel about Mencia? I mean, he has almost single- handedly brought back the word "beaner." What an asshole.

Tehrangelino Tim

Dear Persian Gabacho,

Does the bean dare call the beaner brown? I suppose I could, especially after Mencia appeared on the September 16 edition of Good Morning America and trashed the Mexican by stating, "When you say, 'I'm a Mexican, ask me a question and I'm going to answer for all Mexicans,' that scares me. That legitimizes whatever answer that person gives, whether it's good or bad." Interesting critique, except I've never made such a claim, at least not while sober. And Mencia's one to scold, especially in light of accusations by other comedians (including Chicano icon George Lopez) of plagiarizing their jokes — way to perpetuate stereotypes, Carlos! But I digress: only highfalutin Mexicans get offended by Menstealia's abrasive, occasionally funny routine. You can slam the half-Mexican, half-Honduran for his politically incorrect approach, but then you're walking into his trap — and that's what makes Menstealia a wabby genius. A comedian's raison d'être is to agitate and entertain — nothing more, nothing less. Menstealia succeeds brilliantly — ratings for Comedy Central's Mind of Mencia remain high, and I've already called him Menstealia four times and will do it once more. Carlos has the potential to become a political jester à la Chappelle or Pryor — in an interview I did with him for Latina magazine, Menstealia said our illegal immigration problem "will take care of itself...we had the same thing with the micks and wops and guineas" — but he's currently happy playing the screaming fool, not Cesar Chavez. Let the pendejo mug, I say — if you don't like him and want gentle, polite Latino laughs, tune into Ugly Betty.