Canto CCCLI: Kant Do It

Gentle cabrones:

One of the best things anyone ever said about me was what my sister said when I left the Infernal Rag.

Quick recap: In 2017, I was asked to lay off half the staff of the paper that I headed and where I had spent my entire career. I could've easily done that, and kept what was then the only journalism job I ever wanted. Most people would've kept their job — don’t begrudge a paycheck, after all. It was the smart thing to do.

I didn't keep it.

Not only would I not axe a team of people who were more than colleagues to me, I wouldn’t do it because it was fundamentally the wrong thing to do for many reasons, not least of which no newspaper has every cut their way to profitability or relevance (someone tell Alden Capital that, porfas).

Most folks generally applauded my decision (and those who predicted I'd never find another job in news? What’s good!). And then there was my sister.

I'm not sure if she said in on Facebook, or in a group thread, but she said that my move “was the most Gustavo thing Gustavo could've done.”

She said it with pure love. She’s knows me longer than anyone, and has seen how my entire life has been one based on a moral code, damn the personal costs.

I’ve lost friends, I’ve lost jobs, I’ve lost opportunities, all because I didn’t want to violate what I believe in.

And here I am.

I remembered my sister’s words recently, when I had an encounter with people who were the opposite of me. Who talked a big talk but couldn’t walk a damn step of it. And the funny thing was that they made me an offer they thought I couldn’t refuse.

It wasn’t a work thing. It wasn’t even a money thing. It was all about the principle, something they knew I’m all about yet nevertheless approached me with the intentions of making me sell them out.

Too many people like that in the world. I refuse to be them.

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One of my favorite classes at Orange Coast College was Philosophy 100 — I still have the textbook.

Dug Sartre and Kant's Categorical Imperative. Didn't care for Nietzsche or Plato's philosopher-king. No Derrida or Hegel for us, thank God. But what I particularly obsessed over was the war between deontology and teleology. In other words, do you do something because of a sense of duty to something higher, or because of the result?

Logic and liberalism favor the latter. The former sounds straight from the days of antiquated warrior codes.

Count me for the former.

I'm still of the opinion that there are Truths instead of truths, and that we should strive for them, damn the costs. Those Truths we must guard, and we must get people to believe in them. More importantly, though, you must live by them once you realize them.

If you can’t tell already, I’m all about Gnostic shit.

Believing in Truths gets me in trouble sometimes, but I don't care. The Truths I hold are more Nazarene than Randian — and they are Truths I simply won't compromise on.

One of them is to not screw over your team. And another is to don't side with idiots. Let's say the chance I declined this week was the latter.

Another one is don’t be an apologist for what’s evil. What happened to me recently reminded me of something that happened long ago to…someone. They reported something explosive, which spurred an immediate call for a retraction from an apologist, which didn’t come. Instead, the apologist launched a smear campaign that put the…someone’s…position in a bad spot that took a lot to get out of. Not a pleasant experience, especially because the…someone…knew the apologist was wrong.

Flash forward to a couple of years after the smears. The apologist recanted, but portrayed themselves like Saul of Taursus. People bought it. The…someone grit their teeth but took solace in the fact that they stayed with the Truth, and others knew it.

Another Truth: Don’t let money govern you. Another anecdote involving…someone long ago. A yes-person of a powerful person screwed over the…someone for their reporting on said powerful person. Years later, the yes-person reached out to tell the…someone that they were so proud of their work.

Um, what?

The…someone told the yes-person about their past interaction, and the yes-person apologized and said that they had to screw over the…someone in order to keep their job because they needed it.

Mind you, this yes-person lived in a nice house in Newport Beach.

The…someone told the yes-person to get some morals, and a life.

The Beatles sang money can’t buy love, and that love doesn’t pay bills. In this case, I believe the Countess Luann: Money can’t buy you class.

There is survival, and there is Truth. I choose Truth

**

Enough rambling. This was the semana that was:

IMAGE OF THE WEEK: Terrible photo of an AWESOME steak sandwich at Chapter One: The Modern Bistro in downtown SanTana. Even better? The steak dinner!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: How do you feel when the girls scream for you?

“Well, I figure it doesn't last, so I might as well enjoy it while I can” — Elvis Presley, to an interviewer

LISTENING: “Heaven Must Have Sent You,” The Elgins. I could do all my English-language recommendations with Motown — I still have that early 1990s Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959–1971 four-disc CD anthology complete with the booklet! — but I’ve always loved this Holland-Dozier-Holland composition: sweet to the edge of treacly but saved by beautiful backing vocals, an earnest lead, a tumbling rhythm — and then that chorus. Rare organ for the Beat Brothers, too. SO much better than the group’s better known “Darling Baby.”

READING: “Sunny Prestatyn”: I should recommend more poems, because I do love poetry (and offer some of my own every once in a while here). And I should read the Poem of the Day newsletter more often than not, which is NOT how I found this evocative, lewd 1964 masterpiece of small-town decay. Next time people tell you about the good ol’ days…they weren’t.

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  

Oct. 11, 7 p.m.: Rancho Gordo Encuentro — the collaboration between the legendary heirloom bean purveyor and my honey’s Alta Baja Market — is BACK. It’s a weekend of beans, and I’m in charge of two events: “The Bean Monologues” (exactly what it sounds like — people tell stories about beans), and “How to Taste a Tortilla,” which is also what it sounds like AND you get to take home good tortillas!. The tortilla one is basically sold out; the Bean Monologues in downtown SanTana is nowhere near — so buy tickets to that one, damnit! Comes with snacks!

Oct. 18, 5 p.m.: I’ll be talking about my career at Saddleback College’s WordFest OC. It’s FREE, but you gotta RSVP here. (Note: I’m scheduled to just speak for 45 minutes, but I’ll also stick around for dinner through 7 because who wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to eat tacos?)

Gustavo in the News

“Will Puerto Rico's Youth Save the Island-Colony?”: The Latino Newsletter — that’s its name, for better or worse — shouts out a canto of mine.

“About ‘The Latino Century’”: A recap of my conversation with Mike Madrid last week that I plugged for like two months on this pinche newsletter but which maybe five of ustedes showed up — thank God 75 people who don’t subscribe to my newsletter went! Better yet, it’s written up by my former Infernal Rag colleague Matt Coker, whom I need to get FAAAAADED with one of these days!

“First CSUB Chavez Huerta Leadership Conference ‘monumental’”: I’ll be speaking at this next week, along with Lalo Alcaraz, Al Camarillo, Dolores Huerta and more!

“NATIONAL TACO DAY | First Tuesday in October“: Taco Bell cites my taco scholarship in a press release about their Taco Tuesday liberation

Gustavo Stories 

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

"Mike Madrid in conversation with Gustavo Arellano”: The full discussion between me and Mike Madrid that you missed out on.

“Ask a Californian: Your Slogan Here”: My latest Alta Journal co-columna takes on the Olympics, sloganeering, and more! KEY QUOTE: “Besides, our brand is our shape, immediately recognizable worldwide—that svelte straight top and bottom that shows off our ruggedly handsome coastline, angled middle, and the mess that is the bottom right. (Damn, Arizona, you always hate us ’cause you ain’t us.)”

“To my Tío Santos, whose love of baseball and golf knew no peer”: My latest L.A. Times Sports story is an appreciation of my paternal uncle, who died earlier this month of a heart attack at 76. KEY QUOTE: “My papi beamed. ‘Ah, que hombre.’ What a man.”

You made it this far down? Gracias! Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram while you’re down here by clicking on their logos down below. Don’t forget to forward this newsletter to your compadres y comadres! You can’t get me tacos anymore, but you sure as hell can give them — and more — to the O.C. Catholic Worker!