Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly, Canto CXCI: The Lost Guti Tapes!

Gentle cabrones:

True-ish story: Anthony Fauci muscled me out of an interview this week.

Kinda.

This past Tuesday, I was supposed to appear on Forum, the veritable Bay Area public radio show produced by KQED. I was supposed to appear to talk about the death of ranchera icon Vicente Fernández, which I covered mucho this week, as you’ll see below.

I’ve been on Forum more than a few times, and was looking forward to it. But the morning I was supposed to appear, the producer who had booked me said my segment was being “postponed” because of “some political news.”

That news was an interview with Anthony Fauci. And a weak-salsa January 6 update that the entire world knew about.

It happens.

The producer said there was a possibility that they’d re-book me later in the week, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t hurt at all, because I know how news goes (although Chente died but once!).

But it did get me thinking about recordings I did in the past that never got released, and that haven’t even been bootlegged so only the most devoted folks can listen to them.

Call them the Lost Guti Tapes.

Roll the memories!

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NPR Gets (Even More) Politically Correct

In 2017, when the L.A. Dodgers faced off against the Houston Astros in the World Series, I wrote a story for Remierda comparing and contrasting the Latino heritage and history between the two cities. My compa, Axios race and justice reporter — and Houston native — Russell Contreras proceeded to trash me online, which got the attention of a brilliant NPR producer.

She booked us for Weekend All Things Considered to talk  about it, and the segment was great — we both know our shit, and know our audience. It was set to air…and then Astros player Yuli Gurriel did an anti-Asian gesture at then-Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish.

So not only were the Astros cheaters; they were racist, too.

NPR decided to scuttle my segment with Russell because they felt that to air it would be insensitive. The brilliant producer was apologetic, but there was nothing she could do.

That brilliant producer? She’s now one of my brilliant jefas: The Times podcast senior producer Denise Guerra. Who’s laughing now?

The Atlantic Mega-Piece that Might Be?

Conor Friedersdorf is one of two OC-born staffers at The Atlantic that I know — pop culture writer Spencer Kornhaber, a former colleague of mine at the infernal rag, is the other. He’s an interesting essayist — kinda libertarian, but lands more on the conservative side of the equation but also has a big heart so isn’t an asshole but also tends to romanticize a California that was easy for a gaba to live in but not so much for the rest of us — wait, where was I?

Oh, yeah: I remember years ago when he was doing his own blog and I was getting national notoriety for my syndicated columna, he asked for a conversation on illegal immigration, and I said nah, thinking him too inconsequential.

Who’s laughing now?

Years later — I think it was before Trump, or just after — we met for early dinner at Chapter One: The Modern Bistro in downtown SanTana. Said he wanted to interview me for a big project he was working on. We must’ve talked for a least an hour and a half. I remember saying things about Black Lives Matter (nothing bad), but that’s it.

I’ve never been quoted in a Conor Atlantic story. A couple of years ago, I made fun of him on Twitter about it, and he vowed he was still working on it. So far, nada — it happens?

Blind Item Video Interview Time!

This Ch-list celebrity who I was cool with asked me to do a series of videos about Latino identity for a sponsor of his. I was flown out, put in a nice hotel, and paid a  stipend for my time. His sponsor was going to do a whole advertising campaign about it…and nada. The talks were good, if a bit surface-level, because the celebrity inevitably went for the cheap jokes that were nevertheless funny.

This was years ago. Ever since the ascent of Biden, homeboy went…weird. We don’t talk anymore.

Canceled, then Not

In late 2017, I appeared on a food podcast that was great, popular, and political. The hosts were actually pretty hard on me for my ideas on food and cultural appropriation, but I had fun. The episode was supposed to air — then wokosos canceled me from my job at Remierda.

The hosts came back and said they wanted to append the episode to address the allegations against me. I refused — what was alleged about me was all bullshit, so why bother? Or, I offered, let’s redo the interview completely. They refused, and the episode never aired.

Some months after that, I ran into the host, who asked if I was concerned about those wokosos. I laughed him off and said he should air the episode. Years later, I asked him about it. He apologized for the incident — said he wrongly succumbed to the wokoso mobs, and that if I wanted to come out again on their podcast, they’d be happy to have me. I refused, and said that I hope he learned never to trust wokosos again.

Homeboy’s in a good spot right now. I actually tried to recruit him to the LA Times within the past year, but he declined but was flattered — and he meant it.

It happens.

GRÍTALE A GUTI

This is the column where I take your questions about ANYTHING. And away we go…

Do you know about the Westminster City Council trio? I just started paying attention to their tactics. Some real strange behind the scenes shenanigans from what I have heard.

You wanna talk about messed-up politics? Westminster all the way! The Voice of OC does a good job of covering it, as does the OC Register. Maybe I’ll look at it one day — or maybe my former-current colleague Gabriel San Román will first. Regardless, Wes: Watcha.

Got a question for Guti? Email me here.

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Enough rambling. This was the semana that was:

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