Zacatecas

How a New York Times Story About Mexicans Shows that the Orange County Register Will Always Suck

Early last week, the New York Times did a so-so story about how there's so few Mexicans left in rural Mexico that any amnesty would probably not motivate more of them to migrate to the United States. I say "so-so" not just because I think the reporter, Damien Cave, is an apologist for the Mexican el ... More >>

Sábado de Gloria at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena: Booze, Babes, and Banda aka SoCal's Best Easter Party

In the annals of Lenten celebrations ala Carnaval and Mardi Gras, few match the desmadre that is the pachanga that happens during Easter weekend and the week that follows in Jerez, Zacatecas, the ancestral home of our Mexican-in-Chief and tens of thousands of other Mexican-Americans in Orange County ... More >>

The 20 Greatest Ranchera Singers of All Time, No. 20-11

See also:*The 20 Greatest Songs of Vicente Fernández: The Complete List*Antonio Aguilar, Ranchera Legend, Gets Giant Statue of Him Unveiled in Los Angeles; His 10 Greatest Songs!*The 10 Best Songs of Ramon Ayala, Conjunto Norteño Legend and Accordion HeroTrying to explain what música ranchera is ... More >>

The 10 Most Over-Played Songs at a Mexican Wedding, California Edition

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Houston to do a book signing for my book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. Afterward, I went with friends and fans to enjoy some awesome Tex-Mex at El Real Tex-Mex, and among those who attended were two colleagues/pals from our sister paper, the Houston P ... More >>

Antonio Aguilar, Ranchera Legend, Gets Giant Statue of Him Unveiled in Los Angeles; His 10 Greatest Songs!

Yesterday, a humongous statue of Mexican ranchera legend Antonio Aguilar was unveiled near Olvera Street thanks to the efforts of Los Angeles councilmember Jose Huizar, who's probably related to me somehow like Jessica Alba because he comes from the rancho in Zacatecas right between the ranchos of m ... More >>

Students at La Purisima Catholic School Dance to the Tune of Mexican Folklore

It might only be in the United States, or possibly Southern California, where one finds Caucasian, Vietnamese and Latino students dancing together to traditional, folkloric Mexican songs. The Eighth Annual "La Purisima Ballet Folklorico" at La Purisima Catholic School in Orange featured just that. I ... More >>

What Do I Do to Shut Up My Mexican-Hating Mexicna Cousin?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And do Mexicans have different words for dark skin?

Jax Donut House Is Jax to the Max

[Hole In the Wall] This old-school doughnut shop weathers all trends, whether gentrifiying or foodie

How Can a Gabacho Deal With a Mexican Family?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And why should one learn to speak Spanish?

El Borrego Sagrado Heralds Santa Ana's Hidalgo Wave

[Hole In the Wall] Mixiote, tlacoyos and tender barbacoa are the highlights at this regional gem

Lupe Gomez Is a Triple Player

The Santa Ana businessman's big idea got the Mexican government to help spruce up immigrants' hometowns and got him into politics back home

Two Days 'Til Rapture: OC Weekly Staffers' Last Meals

Flickr user pasukaru76Kinda like this, but not as cool.​So if Oakland preacher Harold Camping and hundreds and hundreds of other crazies are right, the world will be ending this Saturday, May 21--around 6 p.m., to be exact. Which got us thinking: What would we spend our last hours doing? Stuffing ... More >>

Intern Javier Gets Cover Story of This Month's Saveur!

"Javier Cabral" is Huichol for "El Cabrón de Cabrones"​For months, Javier kept telling me about how he was working on an article for Saveur about food from Zacatecas, a subject I'm somewhat obsessed with as you gentle readers know. He's a zacatecano también, from a different part of the state bu ... More >>

Santa Ana Says it Has Third-Best Tap Water in the World

Flickr user Edgar Zuniga Jr.​I defend (and trash) Santa Ana more than most reporters, but one issue I thought both sides of any argument could agree on is the city's tap water--flat, cloudy, with a metallic aftertaste. It doesn't compare to the light, clear, chilly stuff that came out of hoses dur ... More >>

Announcing Stick a Fork in It's First-Ever Intern: Javier Cabral, aka The Glutster!

It's rare that any publication ever gets celebrity interns, but we at SaFII are blessed with that scenario: Today is the first day that Javier Cabral joins our ranks!Cabral is better-known in food-blogging circles as the Glutster, and has already scored mentions in Jonathan Gold's column and the New ... More >>

A Bit of 'French' Culture at Jax Donuts in Anaheim

Dave Lieberman​Jax Donuts in Anaheim has gotten more press than doughnut shops normally do because of Gustavo's writing about the coffee klatsch of men from his parents' home ranchos in Zacatecas who hang out there and sip and talk. They're very nice people, they tease my daughter and make her ... More >>

JAX Donut House in Anaheim Gets College Field Trips, Good Food Segment Because of Gustavo's Dad!

​About a year ago, I got one of the most bizarre requests of my professional career: Fullerton College Professor Jerry Padilla asked me to make sure my dad and his friends were getting doughnuts the following Saturday.The profe wanted to take his students on a field trip of significant places in t ... More >>

Gustavo's Mom-and-Aunt's Recipe for Asado de Boda Jerezano Named One of 2010's Top 10 Favorite Recipes by LA Times!

​Back in March, I wrote an essay for the Los Angeles Times about the lack of Zacatecas-style restaurants in Southern California despite the presence of hundreds of thousands of us. Accompanying my essay was a recipe for asado de boda jerezano, an impossibly rich type of mole pertaining to my paren ... More >>

TGIF: Pilar Diaz, Stars, Blonde Redhead, The Misfits, Usher!

Blonde Redhead​Friday is when Pilar Diaz, one of our featured acts in this week's music section, takes a bow at the Orange County Center of Contemporary Art in Santa Ana. With some years of solo work under her belt after she broke from LA's shoulda-been-really-famous Los Abandoned, the Chilean-bo ... More >>

Just Like Starting Over

Pilar Diaz's solo stint has been a helluva ride

Go for Ricas Gorditas

[Hole In the Wall] One of the longest-standing loncheras, it serves up a masterful version of the Zacatecas religion

Tacos Jerez Gets the Good Food Treatment

​Last week, I appeared on KCRW-FM 89.9's Good Food with Evan Kleiman to talk Tacos Jerez, one of the few restaurants in Southern California to specialize in food from my native Mexican state of Zacatecas. For some reason, they decided to publicize the tacos part of it more than the jerezano angle. ... More >>

Tacos Jerez Represents

[Hole In the Wall] Zacatecan specialties make their way onto the menu of this new Huntington Beach eatery

NarcoTunes

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, this is your Mexican regional music on drugs

OC Mexican Dodgers Fans Invade Dodgers Stadium with Their Loud-Ass Music!

The day is this past Tuesday; the occasion, Opening Day for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The music is tamborazo, the brass-band racket native to Zacatecas; the group, from Jerez, where my parents and thousands of Orange County residents are from (most of them coming LEGALLY, because their parents we ... More >>

Gustavo Arellano Related to Jessica Alba!

Taken from Wikipedia lest we pay the papparazzi...​I get the strangest, most beautiful letters regarding my book, Orange County: A Personal History, and I probably got the best one yet last week from a middle-aged lady who lives in the San Gabriel Valley. She had long heard me on the Orange County ... More >>

Gustavo's Top Five Dishes of 2009

Taco acorazado picture lovingly ripped off from Edwin's personal blog, Monster Munching...​Edwin and Dave will chime in later with their lists; here's mine, in a particular order:1. Tacos acorazados at Alebrije's: Out of all the regional Mexican specialties la naranja offers, this is the best: a h ... More >>

[Hole in the Wall] Goat Love, Zacatecas-Style, at Birriería Nochistlán

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Crossing the Pond Instead of the Rio Grande

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Special Wedding Edition

WEB EXCLUSIVE!

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Reconquista for Dummies

Chile de Arbol Salsa at El Camino Real

El Camino Real in Fullerton needs no real introduction to Weekly readers; we've given it much love over the years for its weekend menudo that draws in Mexican mamis too tired to cook and the fact that Kobe Bryant is known to haunt the place. It's probably the best, for lack of a better term, "normal ... More >>

Is Loretta Sanchez a Light-Skinned Mexican, Or Just Wishing She Was?

Another gem on my favorite television station, KOCE-TV's The OC Channel: the most-recent episode of Dialogue with Doti and Dodge, the longtime public-affairs show hosted by Chapman University President Jim Doti. He sat down for a public interview at the school with the Sanchez sisters, Linda and Lor ... More >>

Northgate Gonzalez Markets Ripping Off Eco-Minded Mexicans

I can never hate Northgate Gonzalez Markets. Its story is one of the great Orange County immigrant success tales, its aisles the first one I remember walking, the hometown of its founders--Jalostotitlán, Jalisco--always fighting for Mexican supremacy in Anaheim against Arandas, Jalisco and my El Ca ... More >>

[¡Ask a Mexican!®] Special Last Column Edition

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

Bringing It All Back Casa at Varsity Burgers

Hey, You!

You Brass

A Gut Feeling

Menudo will cure your hangover but can do so much more

!Ask a Mexican!

How Are the Huevos?

Pepe Aguilar vs. Alejandro Fernandez: ?Quien es mas macho?

The Cinto Pitiado

Let us now praise famous Mexican belts

!ASK A MEXICAN!

!Ask a Mexican!

Meat Loaf Matinee

Chomping on Americas unknown heartland at Pofolks

Surfin Chicken Safari

Old pals, piquant poultry and memories a-plenty at San Clementes Bird Nirvana

E

Taco Towns

Community through comestibles

Mi Casa, Tu Jagerhaus

Anaheim eatery combines authentic German food, Mexican chef

The El Cargadero Social Club

How a Mexican ghost town lives on in Anaheim

Order Up!