Canto CCCXLIV: My Remarks to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim

Gentle cabrones:

Last Sunday, I had the honor of speaking at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim, a place that holds an important spot in my heart. I’ll save my notes about the occasion after the speech, because ustedes want an explanation to what I just said, right? So here is what I wrote, with some asides ALWAYS thrown in. Enjoy!

I was invited to speak here today about my co-book, A People‘s Guide to Orange County. It’s a great book — page after page of important sites of OC’s progressive history, complete with maps, historic photos, and even recommendations on where to eat. We offer occasional walking tours — in fact, we did one just a couple of weeks ago here in Anaheim.

But yesterday, I realized that this month is the 25th anniversary of the most important moments of my life. 25 years ago this month, an Anaheim Union High School District trustee named Harald Martin proposed a resolution to sue Mexico for $50 million for the education of the children of illegal immigrants in the district.

My life can be split as before that resolution, and after that resolution, which ultimately passed but was never implemented. I once didn’t care about politics; after that, that’s all I’ve ever cared about. But I am not here to talk about my life, or that resolution — I addressed both in another book that I wrote about OC, back in 2008 – Orange County: A Personal History, which you can’t really find in used bookstores because it was a giant flop.

No, what I want to talk about today is here: the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim. Because 25 years ago this month, I walked into this holy space for the first time — and it helped to make me who I am.

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I’m an Anaheim native, and Santa Ana Street right behind us is a timeline of my life. Up Harbor is the Anaheim Public Library, where I learn to love books. Across Harbor is one of the last orange groves in Orange County, orchards where my great-grandfather and grandfather used to pick in the 1920s when it was far larger. Down Santa Ana Street, where there are now luxury condos, was once a trucking depot where my dad would pick up his container for the day and take me along with him to teach me the value of hard work.

A little bit further to the east is the Anaheim Packing House, which is today a hipster haven but I remember as being abandoned when I was growing up except for the back of the building, which was an ice house. And where did I grow up? Just a little bit further down from that, where there’s an abandoned lumberyard — we were right behind it until I was 10.

So I always passed by this Unitarian Universalist church.  I never gave it much of a thought. It was just…there. I thought it was weird to have a church that looked like a bank (chuckles from the congregation), because I was used to ostentatious displays of God, as exemplified by my home parish, St. Boniface, which is not too far away from here. So that’s why I thought it was odd, when after the school board meeting where Martin’s racist resolution was passed, I was told that the fight against it would be planned at this UU church.

Here is where I first learned, to paraphrase that classic saying, otro OC es posible. Another Orange County is possible.

I soaked up knowledge from local activist legends: the late Amin David and Josie Montoya. The fiery Seferino Garcia, whom I haven’t seen in years. UU members Ruth Shapin, who I’m glad there’s a memorial fund in her name still going, and Duane Roberts. I eventually attended organizing meetings for other causes, and saw concerts and heard speakers local and national. (around this point, I apologized because the rewrites I did just minutes before didn’t make sense to me. The audience laughed)

I learned that as far back as the 1960s, this church opened its space for progressives to fight against the Orange County beast. I saw how so many of the fights to make Anaheim a better place went through here. I realized it’s part of a galaxy of similar UU communities across Orange County, but this one is the Mother Church of Progressive OC. That’s one of the reasons my co-authors and I decided to write A People’s Guide to Orange County – to document what we felt are the unsung heroes and sheroes that have made Orange County better. In fact, we did such a great job with our co-book…that this UU church isn’t even listed. (laughs from the audience)

Blame me!

My co-authors and I always tell our audiences that we are not the final say — it is A People’s Guide, not The People’s Guide. We always challenge the people whose stories we have tried to document to tell their own stories, and tell those whose stories we overlooked to write themselves into the history books. And so that’s a challenge that I put to all of you today – my co-authors and I, but really I, overlooked the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim, but it doesn’t have to be overlooked by ustedes.

So who among you is going to write the book, or a documentary — even a timeline to hang here — about all the history that has happened here? All the movements and people and change that have created a better Orange County? And share this good news with the world?

Saint Boniface published a book about itself a long time ago. The humongous First Presbyterian Church across the street from my PO Box not too far away did the same some years back. I say this Unitarian Universalist Church deserves the same treatment, if it hasn’t happened already. And if it his has already happened? Can I buy a copy? (light laughter)

It’s a cliché to say that your story matters. It’s a cliché to say that no one else will tell your story if you don’t. I don’t like to talk in clichés, even if those two are particularly true. So I will conclude on this: I thank you, Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim for being the first place to challenge me to think more than just about myself, to make the world a better place. I’m glad this proud tradition continues. Here, we stand inside of an important place in Orange County history.

More people deserve to know about this. So bear witness to everything that has happened here — ustedes deserve all the attention in the world.

Gracias, and God bless.…

On the piano throughout the service was Vern Nelson, publisher of the irascible Orange Juice Blog. We have not always gotten along, but I told him I’m thrilled he’s still continuing one of the few news publications that cares about all of Orange County, and that I owe him an exit interview on my OC days, now that I mostly cover Los Angeles. His wife, longtime activist Donna Acevedo, was kind enough to tell Vern to play “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart, which happens to be on my Top 10 list.

One thing I didn’t mention in my speech: The Anacrime Police Department is right across the street. So much merriment!

The UU church did used to be a bank, so the architecture inside is beautiful, in a Brutalist 1960s type of way: natural sky lighting, lot of right angles. The vault’s doors are still there, now a free clothes area. The former offices are now a kitchen and a small meeting room, where there are photos from camping trips from years past and a free-book section: I left a Bass Reeves bio, and took C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters and one of those Arcadia Publishing local histories, this one about Garden Grove.

The turnout was pretty good, but whether it’s one or a million, I always give it my all. I got good applause for my speech, and I talked to some longtimers who said my idea about them documenting my history was great. Then I caught up with Artie Castillo, a longtime Anacrime activist. I hadn’t seen him in at least 15 years, and the only thing that changed in that time was that his mustache was now brown-grey.

If you’re looking for a holy place in these crazy times, you can never go wrong with a UU, whose congregations across Orange County have regularly called on me to regale them with my looniness. But it’s the UU in Anaheim where I was politically born, and I hadn’t spoken there in at least a decade, so it was a thrill to return.

May its wayward son have done them proud.

**

Enough rambling. This was the semana that was:

IMAGE OF THE WEEK: A five-gallon bucket of tunas aka prickly pears from Puppy Strong Farms. There are MANY more where that came from, along with all the small needles on me right now…YIKES!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “"They're simpler. You get them in a jam, and no one expects you to rack your brains inventing clever ways for them to extricate themselves. They are too stupid to do anything but cut, shoot, or slug themselves into the clear." — Robert Ervin Howard, on his characters

LISTENING: “Les Champs-Elysees,” Joe Dassin. The Paris Olympics is only part of the reason why I’m picking this song. The immortal chorus I’ve always known as “Tan Cerca de Mi,” a Spanish-language Catholic singalong I remember from my Confirmation days, which I remember as a joyous song. Well. I went on YouTube to try to find a great version, and they’re all WAY too somber. Then I finally listen to the Gallic original in its entirety (itself a remake)…and the song is goofy! Reminds me of “Yo Soy de San Luis Potosí” by Jorge Negrete, which features one of the most thrilling choruses ever…and the rest of the song is WAY too lugubrious. Rare I recommend songs I don’t ultimately care for, but here we are!

READING: “The Worm Charmers”: Exactly what it sounds like, from the cracker part of Florida — the Oxford American at its best.

BUY MY NEW CO-BOOK! People’s Guide to Orange County tells an alternative history of OC through the scholarship and reporting of myself, Elaine Lewinnek, and Thuy Vo Dang. There’ll be signings all year — in meanwhile, buy your copy TODAY. And, yes: I’ll autograph it!

Gustavo Events  

August 28, 7 p.m.: I’ll be in conversation with Eugene Rodriguez, founder and executive director of the legendary Los Cenzontles, about his new memoir at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave. Los Angeles. Convo FREE — more details here.

Sept. 21, 1:30 p.m.: I’ll be in conversation with Mike Madrid, longtime GOP strategist turned Trump mega-hater and author of the new book The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy at Alta Baja Market, 201 E. 4th St., Ste. 101, SanTana. Lecture, FREE but register here.

Gustavo in the News

“Chasing the mystery of the California burrito”: Farley Elliott is a great food reporter, but his psychoanalysis of my work is always odd…

“Part 102: The Heartbreak Industry of Los Angeles - Failures in Litigating the Crisis of the Unhoused”: Legendary whistleblower Zachary Ellison shouts out a columna of mine.

“Latinx Files: 50 years after their historic LACMA show, Los Four are as relevant as ever”: A Los Angeles Times newsletter you should subscribe to plugs a columna of mine.

“What to know about Google’s ‘watershed’ antitrust loss”: Another L.A. Times newsletter you should subscribe to plugs a columna of mine.

“The Best Meatless Frozen Burritos, From Breakfast Scramble to Rice and Beans“: Veg News shouts out my taco book.

Gustavo Stories 

“Grítale a Guti”: Latest edition of my Tuesday night IG Live free-for-all.

“Horse owners protest new rent hikes at OC Fair”: My latest KCRW “Orange County Line” commentary talks about what the headlines says.

“UU Speech”: My speech, in video form!

“The Vietnamese": I come out on Kenneth Nguyen's great podcast with the awesome chefs Minh Phan and Nguyen Bui to talk all sorts of awesome stuff

“Gustavo Arellano (LA Times columnist) on the Ethics of Restaurant Criticism, the Joys of Being a Columnist, and Whether Any Subjects Should be Taboo”: I appear on Andrew Friedman’s great podcast to talk about more than just food.

“Elex Michaelson”: I talk with the FOX 11 News anchor to talk about an L.A. Times columna of mine.

“Can Antonio Villaraigosa charm his way into becoming California governor?”: My latest L.A. Times columna talks about the former L.A. mayor. KEY QUOTE: “You don’t interview Antonio Villaraigosa so much as you turn on an audio recorder, sit back and watch a show unfold.”

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