Canto CCCLXXIII: The Liar

Gentle cabrones:

I just had the honor of blurbing a short-story collection by Lisa Alvarez, longtime Irvine Valley College English profe/Puente Program madrina, longtime doyenne of literary OC, former profe of my honey, and longtime comadre of ours. It’s amazing, of course, and I’ll be doing a Random Cool People I Know with her near its publication date in August so ustedes can buy it.

In her spirit, I’m lifting something she’s long done.

On Facebook for years, Profe Lisa retells incidents that she’s seen, experienced or heard of, but in the tone of a short story. The pacing! The details! The turns! A brilliant writer. And, best of all, the use of pronouns instead of names for her main character (i.e., she) as an awesome literary device that adds mystery and a certain je ne sais pup.

In that spirit, I present fiction based on…something. This will be an occasional series — and if you don’t get the subtitle of this canto, you sure didn’t read your Balzac! Who knows? Perchance I may have a book of short stories about Orange County in the future?

And away we go…

He knew The Liar was going to lie.

The Liar had to. The Liar had no choice.

The Liar was a powerful person and knew it — and loved it.

He liked The Liar because they had similar backgrounds and liked to party and because The Liar was doing good things, in the end. Things could be overlooked. Sins were venal.

Besides, he remembered a time when The Liar didn’t lie. When the two of them talked about how they would topple those who lied. He always tried to give people the benefit of the doubt. Felt they could be redeemed, mostly by seeing the wrong they were doing and eventually repenting.

But The Liar kept getting bigger and bigger in their world. So he always wondered when would it end for The Liar.

One day, he got news of people ready to take The Liar down. He wasn’t surprised. So many had tried, so many had failed.

But what they were saying about The Liar this time…was bad.

They nearly brought The Liar Down, but it wasn’t sticking. People asked him to speak up, but he was in no position to. Besides, a part of him thought The Liar didn’t do it. What they said about him…was bad.

But he believed in The Truth, above all. So he waited to see what he could do about The Liar.

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The Liar came to him — could he help?

He let The Liar talk, the way he let everyone talk. Mentally lodging every off-note. Listening to the overall narrative. Noticing everything.

The Liar wailed about persecution. Haters. Liars. Jealousy.

He nodded in concern. He let The Liar talked. And then he asked The Liar a question:

Did the Liar do what others said he did?

Absolutely not. No way. Innocence. Scout’s honor.

He remembered that last note above all. The Liar was long proud of his Scouthood — wore it like one of the damn badges The Liar earned back in the day.

He told The Liar he would see what he could do. People long went to him to advice. Most knew to ignore him at their peril. Too many did. They regretted it always.

He didn’t give The Liar any advice. The Liar should’ve known something was up.

Something was up. Right before they met, he met with Someone Else.

He didn’t really get along with Someone Else, but knew never to discount what they had to say. The two things they had to say this time was tough to hear.

Someone Else knew someone else he knew. They had disavowed Someone Else over The Liar. They accused Someone Else of covering up for The Liar.

He nodded. Not surprised about that someone else. Fatal character flaw that would one day catch up to them — but right now, it was about Someone Else.

He knew Someone Else would never cover up for The Liar — far from it, it turned out. Far, far from it. But Someone Else wanted to lay low about what they knew about The Liar.

He offered advice. Talked about why it was important for Someone Else to confront The Liar. What would happen if they did — and how The Liar would most likely survive unscathed if Someone Else didn’t.

Someone Else listened. The Liar fell — hard. Over. Done. Outta here. Never knew what ultimately did The Liar in, or by who.

The Liar never will.

He knows how it happened. He knows everyone’s role, in everything, everywhere in the damned orange tree.

He doesn’t talk to Someone Else anymore — that relationship was always fraught, anyways. He’s sad about it sometimes, but there’s work to do.

He sees The Liar sometimes. They don’t talk about the past. He knows what The Liar now does.

He waits.

**

Enough rambling. This was the semana that was:

IMAGE OF THE WEEK: Acclaimed illustrator Julio Salgado shouts me out as one of his mentors during his talk at Northwestern earlier this week. Um, HE was my producer at my late, great KPFK show! Photo by Profe Geraldo Cadava, whose Substack you should follow.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “They create a wasteland and call it peace” — Calgacus, per Tacitus

LISTENING: “Uno, Dos, Tres 1-2-3,” Willie Bobo. On rotation right now at Alta Baja Market is a bunch of the Latin jazz maestro and his magnificent remakes of ‘60s hits. Only he could take the execrable “One Two Three” and make it worthy of the Verve label.

READING: “What Freedom Meant to Prince Whipple, The Black Revolutionary Soldier Famous for Rowing Across the Delaware”: Did you learn about Prince Whipple in high school? I sure as hell didn’t. Read stuff like this (in the awesome online publication Common-Place: The Journal of Early American Life) while you can before the DEI patrol shuts it down.

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  

Feb. 22, 11 a.m.: I get to moderate a panel on immigration with two Macarthur genius winners (la profe comadre Natalia Molina and Jason de León) and one of the best magazine writers EVER about L.A. (Jesse Katz) for the Culver City Book Festival at the Wende Museum, 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City. Event is FREE

Feb. 23, noon: I will be the grand marshal at the reenactment of the signing of the Articles of Capitulation — the formal agreement that ended the Mexican-American War in California — at the Campo de Cahuenga Historical Site, 3919 Lankershim Blvd. Studio City. What does that mean? I get to give a short speech! Come see this important part of California history for FREE.

Gustavo in the News

“Part 152: Wildfire Disaster in California – Public Health and Political Climate Troubles”: Legendary whistleblower Zachary Ellison mentions me in a story of his.

Gustavo Stories 

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

“Could new Trump presidency turn OC into a GOP hotbed?”: My latest KCRW “Orange County Line” commentary talks about the new OC GOP head.

"How We Got Here, and Thanking the Undocumented”: I appear on Jon Wiener’s podcast to talk about a columna of mine.

“As Trump was sworn in, day laborer organizer Pablo Alvarado did what he always does”: My latest L.A. Times columna sees me hang out with the co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. KEY QUOTE: “The one person I wanted to be with during Donald Trump’s inauguration was getting ready to play some cumbias when I met him outside the Pasadena Community Job Center.”

“The narco musical ‘Emilia Pérez’ isn’t as bad as critics say — it’s worse”: My next latest L.A. Times columna talks about one of my favorite pieces of music EVER. KEY QUOTE: “No wonder the film nabbed so many Oscar nominations: Academy members are always going to want their cinematic Mexico to be a pitiable hellhole in need of salvation and a reminder to change its errant ways, a trope that goes back to the days of Manifest Destiny.”

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