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    Ask a Mexican
    Ask a Mexican
    Ask a Mexican
    Audiobook8 hours

    Ask a Mexican

    Written by Gustavo Arellano

    Narrated by William Dufris, Christine Marshall and James Herrera

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this audiobook

    An irreverent, hilarious, and informative look at Mexican American culture is taken by a rising star in the alternative media, as well as a new kid on the block in such mainstream venues as NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Today, and The Colbert Report. Gustavo Arellano has compiled the best questions about Mexican Americans from readers of his Ask a Mexican! column in California's OC Weekly and uses them to explore the cliches of lowriders, busboys, and housekeepers; drunks and scoundrels; heroes and celebrities; and most important, millions upon millions of law-abiding, patriotic American citizens and their illegal-immigrant cousins who represent some $600 billion in economic power.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 15, 2007
    ISBN9781400174645
    Author

    Gustavo Arellano

    Gustavo Arellano’s ¡Ask a Mexican! column has a circulation of more than two million in thirty-eight markets (and counting). He has received the President’s Award from the Los Angeles Press Club, an Impact Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and a 2008 Latino Spirit Award from the California State legislature. Arellano has appeared on the Today show, Nightline, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and The Colbert Report.

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    Reviews for Ask a Mexican

    3.5/5

    51 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I thought that this was a very funny question and answer book about the Mexican culture here in America. Being married myself to a Mexican American and also working around them a lot in my youth I can see where some of these answers hit the nail right on the head. Other answers though funny I think are more sterotypical and for good humor. Read this book with an open mind and a really good funny bone and you won't be let down!
    • 2/5
      ¡Ask a Mexican! – Gustavo Arellano2**This is a collection of columns written by Arellano in California’s OC Weekly news magazine. It was originally suggested by his editor, and Arellano had been answering his “Why do Mexicans…..?” questions for five years. He didn’t mind being the source of cultural information, and figured “why not?” so the column was born. It’s become wildly popular and has now been syndicated in several other newspapers across the country.Like most such satirical / humorous columns, they are best taken once a week. Reading all of them at once was a bit much. Yes, he does impart some history of Mexico and Mexican culture, and even I (the daughter and granddaughter of Mexican immigrants) learned a few curse words. However, on the whole I was bored and didn’t find his “humor” very funny. I did like the descriptions of food … especially how his mother would buy three kinds of tripa for her menudo (same as my Aunt Pepa). And, why can’t Goodreads and LibraryThing manage to include the appropriate punctuation in the official title?
    • 5/5
      Great way to research slang language for your novel with a Hispanic cast.. pinche cabrone will not show up in Google translate!
    • 3/5
      I've mucho ambivalence. Had I checked out the book or the online column, I probably wouldn't have lasted half as long as a finishing of this repetitive, sophomoric, 7 (7!) CD audiobook. I've some suggestions. Eliminate, the chapter on sexuality (I mean sex). I can only assume it has zero relevance about Mexicans. Double the length of the chapter on music. Cut the book in half by reducing the number of insults towards Guatemalans, to say, 200.
    • 4/5
      Everyone who isn't Mexican -- and some who are -- should probably read this book. You probably will come away enlightened, angry, disgusted, amused, laughing... there's a little for everyone in here. Certainly, I know more Spanish swear words than I ever thought possible. Mexicans have made swearing an art form, that's for sure.
    • 4/5
      I thought that this was a very funny question and answer book about the Mexican culture here in America. Being married myself to a Mexican American and also working around them a lot in my youth I can see where some of these answers hit the nail right on the head. Other answers though funny I think are more sterotypical and for good humor. Read this book with an open mind and a really good funny bone and you won't be let down!
    • 2/5
      This is kind of a Mexican version of Dave Barry the syndicated newspaper humorist. I went into this not knowing what to expect -- a novel, non-fiction, etc. Come to find out the book is a series of previously published newspaper columns by an Orange County California Mexican-American journalist. Some new content - essays - are included. The author covers off on a range of topics that over some years Americans and some Mexicans wrote into the newspaper asking the author to explain. The author in a humorous and irreverent way answers these questions, painting quite a picture of immigrants, existing Americans with Mexican backgrounds, and a bunch of other related peoples and cultures (Guatemalans, Puerto Ricans, etc).The book was not written poorly, but I did have a couple of complaints. The setup/organization of the book was clearly a mashup of old content with gratuitously added new content--I felt like the new content was there so that the publishers/author/editors did not have to say this is entirely rehashed stuff. Also, the author, rather than ever being humble or apologizing for any fault (and all races and cultures have faults) leans back on the same tired old argument whenever someone makes a good point about challenges with Mexicans. His argument is 'well, what would happen to America if all the Mexicans left'. That's kind of spurious--whenever you're losing an argument to just toggle to an unrelated outcome/topic. He could have handled that better. All in all though, the author is excellent and making the reader - if white like me - apart from that culture, but not too apart, enjoy it, be envious of it, curious, and somewhat laugh all at the same time.