Fullerton Public Library

UCLA Professor Otto Santa Ana at Fullerton Library NEXT THURSDAY for Latest "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!"

I think it was about a decade ago that I first encountered the work of UCLA professor Otto Santa Ana--how else do you explain how I was able to obtain a galley of his excellent Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse, which was finally published in 2002? I m ... More >>

Pilar Marrero, Legendary La Opinión Columnist, to Visit Fullerton Library April 25 for "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!"

If gabacho newspaper readers in Southern California have Los Angeles Times columnist Patt "The Hat" Morrison as their institutional knowledge of the region, then the Latino version is Pilar Marrero of La Opinión. But nothing against Patt: Marrero's is in many ways are more vital voice. She has not ... More >>

USC Professor/OC Gal Jody Agius Vallejo to Appear Feb. 28 at Fullerton Library for Latest "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!"

I first met USC professor Jody Agius Vallejo probably around 2007 or 2008, when she sent me an email pointing out that my ¡Ask a Mexican! column focused too much on poor and crazy Mexicans and not at all about middle-class Mexis. How DARE some academic criticize my columna! But she came in peace, a ... More >>

Award-Winning Author/LA Times Writer Hector Tobar at Fullerton Library Jan. 31 to Kick Off "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!"

I first remember Hector Tobar's byline in dispatches from Latin America, back when he was a foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. This was before I learned of his amazing debut novel, The Tattooed Soldier, perhaps the greatest-ever treatment of the Central American immigration experience ... More >>

"Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!" Returns with Hector Tobar, Middle-Class Mexis, and More!

One of my favorite parts of 2011 was the inauguration of "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!" in which I did my best Dick Cavett impersonation while interviewing authors, intellectuals, and other general awesome people at the Fullerton Public Library, under the auspices of the Cal State Fullerton Dep ... More >>

Woody Guthrie: Songs and Stories of America's Greatest Folksinger to be Celebrated in Fullerton

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born on July 14, 1912 in the small town of Okemah, Oklahoma. Over the decades of his life, "Woody" as he would become popularly known, came to author an enormous catalog of folk songs that have withstood the test of time before falling ill and dying of Huntington's disease ... More >>

Luis J. Rodriguez, Legendary Author, to Speak at Fullerton Library THIS SUNDAY

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at Tia Chucha's Cafe in Sylmar, this chingón Chicano bookstore. It's made possible thanks to the largess of legendary author Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running and other great works of fiction and non-fiction. Awesome, inspirational community space--if I ever ... More >>

Calls for Civilian Cop Oversight Continue In Fullerton

A year after Kelly Thomas' death, the Police Oversight Proposal Committee ask for the formation of a new entity

Long-Lost Sketch of Historic Santa Ana College MEChA Mural by Sergio O'Cadiz Discovered

The Southern California arts community lost a legend last year when former Santa Ana College professor Shifra Goldman passed away. The historian championed Chicano murals long before others, and served as a ceaseless promoter of the OC Chicano arts scene as best exemplified by Emigdio Vasquez and Se ... More >>

[UPDATED, FULLERTON SIGNING TOMORROW!] First Round of Book Signings Announced for Taco USA!

​UPDATE: Tomorrow, I have my first book signing for the book at the Fullerton Library's main branch on Commonwealth. 7 p.m.--see you there!ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 2: Gentle readers: it gives me great pleasure to announce the first leg of my book tour for Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. ... More >>

[UPDATED: Cover Story This Week is Intro to Book!] Gustavo to Have Book Signing for Taco USA at the Fullerton Public Library April 12!

UPDATE: The cover story this week is the introduction to my Taco USA, to whet appetites so ustedes can go to any number of my book signings. It starts in outer space then descends into the hilarious hell that was my 2010 debate in Denver with Tom Tancredo. AND there's an extra bonus: an adapted exce ... More >>

Taqueria Two Guys Cheeses It

[Hole In the Wall] This Santa Ana Mexican restaurant loves its cheese, damn the authenticity

Gustavo to Have Book Signing for Taco USA at the Fullerton Public Library April 12!

​Over at our Stick a Fork in It blog, I've been pimping out my latest book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, for nearly a year, so I might as well do it here as well, you know? It's dropping April 10, with the first OC book signing at the Fullerton Public Library on April 12.This will ... More >>

[UPDATED, WITH SANTE FE CONFIRMED!] First Round of Book Signings Announced for Taco USA!

​Gentle readers: it gives me great pleasure to announce the first leg of my book tour for Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. I'm burning the midnight coal with both ends of the candle's oil (or however that pinche metaphor goes) putting even more street corners on the agenda, but below ... More >>

Awesome O.C. Mexican/Screw Know Nothings Quote of the Day!

​I never did give a review of last month's panel discussion about legendary Chicano artists Sergio O'Cadiz and Emigdio Vasquez at the Fullerton Public Library, but it was great--over 40 people in attendance for an event promoted solely by this infernal rag. Fullerton College professor Jerry Padill ... More >>

OC Bookly: OC Bookstores, Part I--You Should See What It's Like in There

The Bibliofella (see photo, right) never passes up even the least opportunity to invoke his earliest literary heroes, writers whose work helped transform the goofy adolescent I once was into, well, the adult goof I am today, a person for whom the truth-telling of novels, short stories, essays and po ... More >>

Gustavo to Give Mini-Lecture on History of Mexican Food in OC NEXT FRIDAY TOMORROW at the Samueli Theater!

​As you've known for years, 2012 is the year that my much-promised Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America finally gets published. The debut lecture here in OC is April 12 at the Fullerton Public Library--but you can get a brief, brief preview next Friday TOMORROW at the Segerstrom Center for ... More >>

Fullerton Police Department: As Civil Liberties-Hating 88 Years Ago As It Is Today

As true today as in the 1920s​You'll remember in Marisa's story last month about the many sins of the Fullerton Police Department both before and after their killing of Kelly Thomas how she talked to an older woman who was subjected to a home invasion without warrant by the city's bullies in blue. ... More >>

Gustavo's Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America Now Available for Pre-Order!

​Mark your calendars for April 10, 2012: that's when my long-promised history of Mexican food in the United States, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, finally hits the two bookstores left in this country.

Soho Taco, Taco María to Hold Mini-Clustertruck Outside Fullerton Public Library Dec. 7 THIS WEDNESDAY!

Zambrano, ready to lay down some tacos chingónes​At the end of every semester, I make my students at Cal State Fullerton give their finals before an audience at the Fullerton Public Library to prepare them for life outside the academic bubble. And we can't have a symposium without food, you kn ... More >>

Soho Taco, Taco María to Hold Mini-Clustertruck Outside Fullerton Public Library Dec. 7!

​At the end of every semester, I make my students at Cal State Fullerton give their finals before an audience at the Fullerton Public Library, to prepare them for life outside the academic bubble. And we can't have a symposium without food, you know? Last time around, I invited Barcelona on the Go ... More >>

[UPDATED: Event is TOMORROW] Theresa Cisneros and Ron Gonzales, OC Register Editors, to Sit Down With Gustavo at Fullerton Public Library Oct. 27

​Originally posted Oct. 20: We at the Weekly have very little love for the Orange County Register, not just because they're the major daily in town but for many petty battles waged upon us over the years. But I have nothing but love for editors Ron Gonzales and Theresa Cisneros, who man the paper' ... More >>

Lalo Alcaraz at Fullerton Public Library TOMORROW

​As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, my "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!" returns tomorrow at the Fullerton Public Library with legendary cartoonista Lalo Alcaraz. Lalo, ever the quick drawer, has even modified one of his famous anti-police brutality editorial cartoons to reflect Kelly Thomas' mur ... More >>

"Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!" Returns This Month to Fullerton Public Library with Lalo Alcaraz, OC Register Reporters--and More!

​After a summer hiatus, the lecture series (unfortunately titled "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!"--not my choice) I host at the Fullerton Public Library in conjunction with Cal State Fullerton's Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies (where I lecture) returns next week on Sept. 29 with a vis ... More >>

First-Ever OC Weekly Hot Sauce/Salsa Contest Scheduled for This Month POSTPONED

Soon...​Remember how in May, I said we were going to do our first-ever hot sauce/salsa contest July 23 at the Fullerton Public Library? Well, I messed up--I'm postponing the event, and it's all my fault.

First Round of 'Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!' Concludes With Screening of Born In East LA THIS THURSDAY

​Six months of awesome monthly events at the Fullerton Public Library--all part of my "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!", sponsored by the Cal State Fullerton Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies (where I lecture) . . . phew, that's a long sentence. Start over!One of the greatest memories of ... More >>

Announcing OC Weekly's First-Ever Hot Sauce/Salsa Contest!

Flickr user uberculture​You'll remember that last year, I was invited to be a judge at the Austin Chronicle's huge Hot Sauce Festival. The event was so memorable, that I started thinking about how to start something similar in Orange County, something that would determine once and for all the best ... More >>

[UPDATED: Final Reminder, Plus More Dos Chinos Love!] Announcing OC Weekly's First-Ever (Mini) Lonchera Clustertruck!

Photo by Kimberly ValenzuelaMariela Rebollo and the Barcelona on the Go gang: ready to serve your tapas needs, che!​UPDATE #2: Dos Chinos gets a shout-out for me in this week's dead-tree edition of the paper. Better yet, they recently created Vietnamese-style menudo--AWESOME! But whither my challe ... More >>

This Week in Food: Smoked Turkey Legs, Cinco de Drinko, and

Flickr user madmarv00​This was Cinco de Mayo week, so we understandably went more Mexican than usual. But after the jump are non-Mexi delights and more!

Dos Chinos Are Chinitos Chidos

[Hole In the Wall] This Asian-Latino luxe lonchera represents the present-future OC

[UPDATED: Event is THIS THURSDAY] William Nericcio, San Diego State Professor, to Bring his "Museum of Mexican Stereotypes" to Fullerton April 28

​Original post, April 5, 3:25 p.m.: This is going to be fun: William Nericcio, professor of English at San Diego State, the nation's premier expert on Mexican stereotypes, and author of the best academic book you'll ever read, Tex(t)-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the 'Mexican' in America, will ... More >>

Announcing OC Weekly's First-Ever (Mini) Lonchera Clustertruck!

Piaggio on Wheels: One of the participants​Us Forkers are planning mucho food events for the rest of the year (food tours? Contests? Booze? You know it! Details to come...), and I'm glad we were able to confirm this one: our first-ever clustertruck, on May 11 at the Fullerton Public Library!It's a ... More >>

[UPDATED: Event Is Tomorrow!] Jaime Hernandez, Author of the Love and Rockets Comic Book Series, to Speak at the Fullerton Public Library Next Thursday!

​UPDATED, FEB. 23, 12: 27 P.M.: Here's a brief interview I did with Fantagraphics Books, the longtime publishers of the Hernandez brothers, about Jaime's work. See you mañana!ORIGINAL POST, FEB. 17, 1:27 P.M.: Last fall, I was invited to the Miami Book Fair, one of the largest in the United State ... More >>

Jaime Hernandez

Fullerton Library

Packed House Saw Reading of The Mexican OC at the Hunt Fullerton Library

​A grand old-time was had by all yesterday at the Hunt Fullerton Library, that gorgeous William Pereira creation that is nearly impossible to find. The occasion was the kick-off of "Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!"--the public salons I'm holding in conjunction with the Cal State Fullerton Depart ... More >>

Reading of Award-Winning Play The Mexican O.C. TOMORROW at Hunt Fullerton Library

​Back in 2006, the brand-new Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble took OC's play-loving world by storm with its debut production: The Mexican O.C., a play produced from hundreds of hours of interviews with titans in Orange County's Latino community whom the regular history books had long overloo ... More >>

Announcing 'Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!' at the Fullerton Public Library: Love and Rockets, Taco Trucks, and More!

​Given the overwhelming success organizers had with lectures at the Fullerton Public Library regarding the Alex Bernal housing-desegregation case and Lalo Alcaraz, the Fullerton Public Library and Cal State Fullerton's Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies (for which I'm a part-time lecturer) ... More >>

Eddie Lin Book Giveaway Quiz Time!

​In digging through my archives for a document for my investigative side, I came across a couple of autographed copies of SaFII friend-idol Eddie Lin's Extreme Cuisine, his awesome book that the Fullerton native released through Lonely Planet. It'll make a great stocking stuffer for your dearest f ... More >>

Lalo Alcaraz to Sit Down with Gustavo This Thursday at the Fullerton Public Library

​Lalo Alcaraz, the mad genius behind the La Cucaracha comic strip, the genius Obama-as-Zapata political cartoon, and too many other to mention, will grace this fair county this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Fullerton Public Library. But it won't be his usual desmadre--joining him in the Hispanderin ... More >>

Over 200 People Attend Seminar at Fullerton Public Library on Historic Alex Bernal Case

​Who says the public doesn't like history? On Wednesday night at the Fullerton Public Library, I moderated a seminar on the life of Alex Bernal, the brave Fullerton man who stood against his racist, litigious white neighbors that wanted him out of their neighborhood on account of his Mexican herit ... More >>

Seminar on Historic Alex Bernal Housing Discrimantion Case to Happen Next Week at the Fullerton Public Library

​I know there's more than a few history buffs out there, so this should excite ustedes: next Wednesday, the Fullerton Public Library will host a seminar on the case of Alex Bernal, the Fullerton resident whose successful struggle against a housing discrimination lawsuit filed against him in 1943 b ... More >>

[Hole In the Wall] In Praise of Hot Taco's Goat On Wheels

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Special El Edition

And Speaking of John Dean in Orange County . . .

UPDATED WITH CORRECTED GENDER FOR ONE MAN, JOB DESCRIPTION FOR ANOTHER (THANK YOU, REV. TAYLOR). Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, whose June appearance drew 300 people to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum and the wrath of the private Richard Nixon Library & Birth ... More >>

[Special Screenings] 'Casablanca,' 'Bedtime Stories,' 'Memento,' More

[Special Screenings] 'Under the Bombs,' 'Border Café,' 'The Big Lebowski,' More

[Special Screenings] Polish Film Festival, 'Battle In Seattle,' More

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Drinko Por Cinco Mariachi Cheat Sheet Edition

[Special Screenings] Local Showings of The Violin, More

To Do Tonight - 01/21

AN EVENING WITH FRANK MICKADEIT, 7 p.m. Dying to get cozy with OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit? The flyer says there's a good chance he'll serenade you too. Fullerton Public Library, Queen Mary, Long Beach CASINO NIGHT WITH THE ANAHEIM DUCKS, 7 p.m. The Ducks play dealers for charity as live ... More >>