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 Pulitzer Prize in Opinion Writing in 2026 and Commentary in 2025. He was also a finalist in 2025 for 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.
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As Trump afflicts the U.S. with a prolonged civic bout of Montezuma’s Revenge, Mexican food’s role in the overall mess he has left us with is notable.
For generations, Resurrection has been a place of solace and resistance for residents angry about the latest indignity to befall the historic heart of Latino Los Angeles.
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What Prop. 40 supporters don’t get is that you can only smack a goose so much to give more until it bites back, which is what California billionaires are increasingly doing by throwing their cash around to defeat any political candidate exuding a whiff of progressivism.
For at least half a century, Border Patrol workers have used the onomatopoeic word “tonk,” referring to the sound of someone getting hit, as slang for undocumented immigrants.
As I stared into Cosmo’s tired eye, I remembered the lessons he and Hook taught us. Selflessness. A recommitment to the outcasts, the overlooked, the underdogs of society. A reminder that all good things end far sooner than we want.
Your morning catch-up: Eastside neighbors consider a radical idea, homelessness in L.A. has increased, and more big stories
The Dodgers are scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday. That’s like staying in the dugout during a bench-clearing brawl then offering the offender a handshake.
Over 104 games, a bunch of questionable VAR calls, another heartbreaking downfall by Mexico and a brilliant goal by Spain’s Ferran Torres, I learned why soccer is the world’s most popular sport.
Republicans’ crusade against imaginary noncitizen voters may pay off in the short run but will inevitably, spectacularly backfire.