Ask a Mexican (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: bumblebee man, three flowers, cinto pitiado, United States, Orange County, Mexico City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Arellano's popular Orange County Weekly column "¡Ask a Mexican!" now widely syndicated and gathered in this acerbic volume, he answers serious, curious, and sometimes hateful but mostly irreverent questions about Mexicans. This book compiles what are presumably the best question-and-answer exchanges over the past two years, under topics including language, sex, immigration and food. Arellano wittily defuses bigotry and mocks stereotypes with his often well-researched replies. To the inquiry on the authenticity of flour vs. corn tortillas, he explains that the Spaniards created the former. "Why do Mexicans wear their clothes when swimming?" is a recurring question among Arellano's readers; his answer: good manners. In response to the vitriolic "What is it about the word illegal that Mexicans don't understand," he points out that U.S. employers don't understand the word either. The author's relentless irony and reclamation of derogatory terms (e.g., "wab," the Orange County version of wetback) 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. (May)
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Product Description

DEAR MEXICAN:

WHAT IS ¡ASK A MEXICAN! ?

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.

WHY SHOULD I READ ¡ASK A MEXICAN! ?

At 37 million strong (or 13 percent of the U.S. population), Latinos have become America's largest minority -- and beaners make up some two-thirds of that number. I confront the bogeymen of racism, xenophobia, and ignorance prompted by such demographic changes through answering questions put to me by readers of my ¡Ask a Mexican! column in California's OC Weekly. I challenge you to find a more entertaining way to immerse yourself in Mexican culture that doesn't involve a taco-and-enchilada combo.

OKAY, WHY DO MEXICANS PARK THEIR CARS ON THE FRONT LAWN?

Where do you want us to park them? The garage we rent out to a family of five? The backyard where we put up our recently immigrated cousins in tool-shack-cum-homes? The street with the red curbs recently approved by city planners? The driveway covered with construction materials for the latest expansion of la casa? The nearby school parking lot frequented by cholos on the prowl for a new radio? The lawn is the only spot Mexicans can park their cars without fear of break-ins, drunken crashes, or an unfortunate keying. Besides, what do you think protects us from drive-bys? The cops?

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416540024
• ISBN-13: 978-1416540021
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #436,300 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask, June 3, 2007

By	Marco Antonio Abarca (Colorado) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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The premise of this book is simple. Gustavo Arellano writes a nationally syndicated column where readers ask him the questions they have always wanted to ask about Mexicans. The questions range from the predictably racist to the naive and well intentioned. With great wit and confidence, Arellano answers the questions in the spirit in which they were sent.

In this age of political correctness, there is something refreshing about a journalist who is not afraid to speak his mind. In an odd way, the publication of Arellano's weekly column shows a maturing of ethnic relations in the United States. Throughout our country's history, the people at the bottom have always been the recipients of the majority's distain. Not content to be some noble victim, Arellenao believes giving some of it back is the classic way of dealing with this type of petty oppression. Guastavo Arellano is as "All American" as Don Rickles and Jackie Mason.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST BOOK EVER!, April 23, 2007

By	L. Agan (Orange County) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Growing up in Orange County, I must sing Gustavo Arellano's praises! His knowledge, understanding and quick wit when explaining in depth everything we are all too afraid to ask about Mexicans is BRILLIANT! Each and every week offers new surprises in his OC Weekly column "Ask A Mexican" - nothing is too off-colored, "weird" or offensive - GUSTAVO KNOWS ALL and this book blends perfectly, each and every "delicious" and "meaty" question as if it were a critical ingredient in the most AMAZING Mexican taco! Tasty! Also check out his restaurant reviews! Gustavo is an amazing writer - quick witted, sarcastic, intuitive and potent! Truly a voice for our generation! Amazing book! Get it!

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Irreverent columnist strikes chord with many readers, June 8, 2007

By	Daniel Olivas (West Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you like your humor smooth as flan or comforting as a big abrazo from your abuelita, do not read Gustavo Arellano's first book, "¡Ask a Mexican!" (Scribner, $20 hardcover).

However, if biting satire is your cup of canela tea, Arellano is the man for you.

In his book, he brings together the best of his nationally syndicated column of the same name, with some new material thrown in for good measure.
For the uninitiated, Arellano lives in Orange County, Calif., and is a staff writer and a news editor for the OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper serving the region.

Arellano's column began almost as a joke a few years ago between him and his editor, Will Swaim. Swaim, it seems, had an idea for a one-time column (to fill some space) in which Arellano would answer questions about Mexicans. As Arellano explains in his characteristically in-your-face introduction to the book, Swaim turned to him "not only because I was the only Latino on staff and mowed the lawn on the side, but because my background -- child of Mexican immigrants (one illegal!), recipient of a master's degree in Latin American studies, a truthful beaner -- put me in a unique position to be an authority on all things Mexican."

So Arellano "slapped together" the first Q&A:

Question: "Dear Mexican, Why do Mexicans call white people gringos?"

Answer: "Dear Gabacho, Mexicans do not call gringos gringos. Only gringos call gringos gringos. Mexicans call gringos gabachos."

It was an immediate hit with readers, and questions started pouring in -- much to Arellano's amazement. This one-time lark became a regular column.

Since then, Arellano's irreverent style, fueled by the often-asinine queries, has resulted in nothing short of a social and publishing phenomenon. "¡Ask a Mexican!" is now nationally syndicated and won the 2006 Association of Alternative Weeklies award for Best Column. Arellano has been the subject of press coverage on "Nightline," "The Colbert Report," "The Today Show," the Los Angeles Times and the San Antonio Express-News.

Many of the questions Arellano receives are mean-spirited, designed to get a rise out of him. But he mixes humor with social analysis (and sometimes with a dash of government data) to do three things: point out the ridiculousness of the question, educate us, and make us laugh.

An example:

Question: "Why aren't more migrant Mexicans taking advantage of the English classes made available instead of relying on their children to translate?"

Arellano's answer runs too long to be reprinted here but he responds, in part: "The first generation of immigrants commit themselves to a lifetime of labor, not assimilation -- that's the job of the children." He continues: "Sure, - hilarity can ensue when you have an 8-year-old trying to describe a father's diabetes to a doctor, but what better way to teach Mexican kiddies that life in America is brutal and filled with beans if you have immigrant parents?"

Another question: "Why are Mexicans always selling oranges on street corners?" Arellano's answer begins: "What do you want them to sell -- Steinways?"

Not all questioners are non-Mexican. Arellano takes delight in describing the culture to self-proclaimed pochos (assimilated Mexicans) who truly feel they have lost much of their heritage.

And many questioners want explanations for Spanish cuss words and phrases that cannot be reprinted in a family newspaper. Suffice it to say that if you are not prudish, Arellano's answers will have you on the floor laughing.

The book includes essays, as well, in which Arellano digs deeper into the sociological and cultural complexities of readers' queries and all things Mexican.

Throughout history, literature's greatest social satirists were both criticized and embraced. Could Gustavo Arellano be the Mexican Jonathan Swift? Es posible.

[This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]