Gustavo Arellano, the author of the “Ask a Mexican” columns, has a new gig.
The former OC weekly editor, who quit his job to avoid laying off staff, is now a weekly columnist for the opinion section of the Los Angeles Times. He’ll be writing about California issues.
His introductory column was published last week (and was translated into Spanish). It will run on Wednesdays.
In his second column, he tackles marihuana, Jeff Sessions and a little California history.
Arellano also had a brief stint as Editor-at-Large at Remezcla from mid-December until last week, when he shared the news on Twitter. His announcement unleashed a negative twitter storm calling for his dismissal with the hashtag #boycottgustavo, accusing him of using racist and homophobic language.
Remezcla backtracked and severed ties with Arellano, sending a tweet about the decision. You can read the entire twitter back and forth on Latino Rebels.
Arellano told the New York Times he wasn’t surprised by the backlash:
“There’s always going to be people who don’t like what you write. If you don’t have haters you are not doing your job correctly. The people accusing me of being racist, they don’t take my career in perspective. We covered these communities better than anyone else in Orange County. What seems to be the issue right now, is that in this country if you don’t have the same thoughts as other people you are immediately marked as the enemy.”
