OC Weekly columnist Gustavo Arellano will attend a UCLA graduation for the first time this year. He missed his own in 2003 but will appear as the keynote speaker for the College of Letters and Science commencement.
“I didn’t want to go through all the pomp and circumstance,” he said of the commencement he skipped as a graduate student at UCLA. “I stayed home and watched the Dodgers.”
Arellano, a columnist for the OC Weekly, explores sensitive issues such as racial tensions and religious corruption in Orange County. Through his national column, “¡Ask a Mexican!”, weekly radio shows on KPFK 90.7 FM and posts on the OC Weekly’s “Navel Gazing” blog, Arellano examines contradictions and injustices in his hometown.
A UCLA alumnus, Arellano received his master’s degree in Latin American Studies in 2003, after graduating from Chapman University with a bachelor of arts in film studies.
He was selected by a committee of 15 campus representatives, who sent recommendations to the deans based upon candidates’ connection with the UCLA community and sensitivity towards campus issues, said Julie Sina, dean of the College of Letters and Science.
“One of the things that we heard the chancellor talk a lot about this year is diversity, which (Arellano) writes a lot about,” Sina said. “Another thing we focused a lot on is being engaged in the community ““ diversity, community engagement, continued scholarship ““ and shown that it has meaning and plays out in his work.”
The social conditions of Southern California, specifically Orange County, have been the focal point of Arellano’s work for the past seven years. Reporting and commenting on people and happenings in his hometown, Arellano said his goal each day is to enlighten a community whose citizens often turn a blind eye on significant social issues.
“I was born and raised in Anaheim, and I am an Orange Countyian for life,” he said. “I love Southern California, its history, its contradictions. I love knowing that I’m never going to be at a loss for stories.”
Having family roots in the area for almost a century, Arellano has seen Orange County transform and change over time.
“Orange County was first rural, and now it’s a suburb paradise,” he said. “From a demographic standpoint, Orange County is also minority majority, and that’s where the United States is headed.”
While Arellano said he is now committed to journalism, he did not originally pursue the field in his studies. Dabbling in film in his undergraduate years, Arellano said he discovered his love for journalism when he began his job at the OC Weekly during his first year at UCLA.
“I almost wanted to drop out, but my editor wisely told me to graduate first,” he said. “I’ve been here ever since, and I’d like to keep writing. I’ve discovered that whenever life presents you with opportunities, you should take a good look at them. That’s what I did, and the rewards are so rich.”
As a staff writer, Arellano specifically covers racial injustices and religious hypocrisy, exploring Southern Californian issues of Mexican racism, immigration and the corruption in the Catholic church.
“The Catholic church is rotten to its core,” he said. “Orange County has also always had a problem with outsiders, especially Mexicans. Xenophobia is high in Southern Californian society, and ultimately it’s a question of immigrants assimilating into the culture over time.”
In his speech, Arellano will discuss his experiences at UCLA and his transition from student to professional.
Students await the experiences and advice Arellano will give, said Shahida Bawa, Undergraduate Students Association Council internal vice president.
“I am hoping that he bestows some life lessons and wisdom upon the new graduates, so they’ll have some sort of guidance from a real-life Bruin,” she said.