Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, covering Southern California everything and a bunch of the West and beyond. He was a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary and the Mike Royko Award for Commentary and Column Writing and was part of the team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News for reporting on a leaked audio recording that upended Los Angeles politics. Arellano previously worked at OC Weekly, where he was an investigative reporter for 15 years and editor for six, wrote a column called ¡Ask a Mexican! and is the author of “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.” He’s the child of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy.
Latest From This Author
It’s almost a year into Trump 2.0 and MAGA has gone full “snowflake.”
Orange City Councilmember Arianna’s Barrios’ rise as one of O.C.’s most vocal politicians opposing President Trump’s deportation machine has been surprising — and welcome.
- Voices
Arellano: Former bracero doesn’t want the program to return. ‘People will be treated like slaves’
I wanted to hear Alvarado’s insights at a time where farmers are pleading with President Trump to stop his deportation tsunami because crops are rotting in the fields.
Crank up the Benny Hill theme song and let the belly laughs commence.
- Voices
Arellano: L.A.’s federal public defender says Trump has inundated his office with immigration cases
With the same first name as the last Aztec emperor, it’s not surprising that Cuauhtémoc Ortega chose to be a fighter.
- Voices
Arellano: There’s no nice way to deport someone. But Trump’s ICE is hosting a cruelty Olympics
When my father was crossing the U.S.
For one glorious summer in 1965, Robert ‘Rabbit’ Jaramillo and his friends in the Chicano rock group Cannibal and the Headhunters were rock ‘n’ roll stars
Augusto Arellano pays his respects to Casa Bonita, a combo plate of pro-Mexican PR revived by ‘South Park’ creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
“Are politics going to get worse now?” my father asked. It’s a question that friends and family have been asking me since Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Your morning catch-up: Honoring a Mexican American nightlife hero, Trump’s $1.2-billion call to remake UCLA and more big stories.