Canto CCCLXXI: "Let Me Know How I Can Help"

Gentle cabrones:

I know…someone.

Powerful. Intimidating to many. Kind of like Winston Wolf in Pulp Fiction, except they’re someone who makes things happen instead of waiting for messes to clean up – although they can do that as well.

The person behind the person. The person who, if they call, you pick up no matter what the hell’s going on. Doesn’t just know the game, but helped to write it.

The Powerful Person…they’re really nice! Surprising sense of humor. Incredible heart. Remember when I’ve said you should always hang out with people smarter than you? That is me now.

I’ve learned a lot from them about how to lead, how to follow and how to live in SoCal. But by far the most valuable lesson is something that they have never told me to do explicitly but has always challenged me implicitly to adopt as a mantra. And it’s something that they conclude with almost every time we talk, no matter what the conversation.

“Let me know how I can help.”

It’s a card I’ve thankfully never had to call on nor will I ever probably do because I’m a rancho libertarian and we don’t ask for help. But it’s one of the most noble personal philosophies I’ve heard someone espouse and follow, and so refreshing to come from someone like them.

Powerful people like them tend not to help unless it’s for performative reasons. Far from it, they want you to kiss the ring. They want you to worship them. They want you to fear them.

Not the Powerful Person I know. They truly are here to help, and I’ve seen them do so. I’m thinking of that person right now, as too many people in Los Angeles need help like never before.

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None of my loved ones have lost their home in the multiple fires that has hit L.A. County this week (gracias to those of ustedes who have checked in on me. I’m forever an OC guy, so we’re far, far away. Check in on me when the Big One hits, or the Santa Ana River floods at 1938 levels. Or if Trump’s migra goons follow through on their deportation sweeps). But on my Facebook timeline, I know at least 10 people who have lost everything. On the posts of people who know people who have lost homes, it’s easily over 50.

This is the closest disaster I’ve ever experienced on a personal level (the 1994 Northridge quake shook OC hard but didn’t cause any damage, and I only have one cousin in the San Fernando Valley — they thankfully were fine). For the first day, I doomscrolled on social media, and I’m sure the damn algorithm kept me from knowing all the people that I know who were affected.

Watching from afar is not enough. As I saw person after person talk about how their lifetime of work and love was burnt to the ground, I began to post what the Powerful Person taught me to do without saying so:

“Let me know how I can help.”

There is a clichéd saying among bleeding hearts whenever we’re in calamitous times, courtesy of Mr. Rodgers: Look for the helpers. Noble statement, but that’s not enough. WE need to be the helpers. We can all be the helpers.

We must be the helpers. We must help.

We. Help.

That’s power.

How you help doesn’t matter, as long as you do. If you know people in Los Angeles, check in on them. Most likely they’re two degrees of separation at the minimum from someone who was directly affected — they’ll tell you what’s needed. And that’s just the start: We haven’t even gone into how this disaster will affect prices on everything across Southern California, or how the mentality of L.A. will be forever changed. How the Palisades and Altadena were leveled — communities forever altered. Lives lost. Stress. Trauma. The political conflagrations that are already raging and will do so after the last ember is extinguished.

And the fires aren’t even close to being contained. And the Santa Ana winds are going to pick up soon.

Help.

**

Enough rambling. This was the semana that was:

IMAGE OF THE WEEK: The first Cesar Chavez autograph I’ve ever come in possession of, gracias to of my ongoing project to own every book ever written about him and the UFW. What book was it? Only two people will know…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “You would not be happy with me…You make beautiful poetry out of what you call your unhappiness and you are happy in that. Marriage would be such a dull affair. Poets should never marry.” — Maud Gonne to Yeats, of course

LISTENING: “Al establo más dichoso,” Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla. I try to not connect things in my cantos — everything save my quotes in publications and columnas should be sui generis. But I’m making an exception for this piece, which was part of the Mexican Baroque performance of Christmas songs that I plugged for over a month but which maybe three of you went to last week. You missed out on work like this: ancient yet timeless, stirring and shifting, epic yet heartfelt. More information below...

READING: “The Triumph of Paddington Inc”: I remember liking the bear from deepest, darkest Peru back in the day, but didn’t realize he had become such an industry. Great examination of what that means.

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  

Jan. 12, noon AKA THIS WEEKEND IS POSTPONED: I will EVENTUALLY 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. BUT…it’s postponed because of the fires, so watch for an update in this space soon…

Jan. 15, 12:30 p.m.: I’ll be appearing on “Alta Live!” with my “Ask a Californian” co-columnista Stacey Grenrock Woods as we talk about Alta Journal’s latest magnificent issue. It’s on Zoom and FREE, but you need to register! And don’t be surprised if this is postponed as well.

Jan. 21: Remember when I used to come out on KPCC’s AirTalk with Larry Mantle every other week to talk Orange County stuff? I do! Well, I’m taking a trip back in time for Larry’s 40th anniversary tour with a taping about OC matters at the Bowers Museum in SanTana! Going to start at 7 p.m, and tickets are FREE, but you gotta RSVP!

Gustavo in the News

“Opinion Today”: This Substack cites a columna of mine.

“L.A. County’s newest D.A. swept the Westside and San Fernando Valley”: A Los Angeles Times newsletter you should subscribe to plugs a columna of mine.

“Fact vs. Spin Regarding the L.A. Firestorm; Don’t Eat Your Christmas Trees, No Matter What Ghent Says–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Jan. 9, 2025”: The Coachella Valley Independent cites a columna of mine.

“Letters to the Editor: Why MSNBC isn’t the left-wing equivalent of Fox News propaganda“: L.A. Times readers sound off on a columna of mine.

Gustavo Stories 

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

“House of Mouse settles hefty lawsuit over OC workers’ wages”: My latest KCRW “Orange County Line” commentary talks about Disney having to pay over a quarter billion dollars in back wages.

"Alta Live: Ask a Californian’s Seven Wonders”: The plug for above!

“My next year's Christmas playlist will draw on wonders of Mexico's past”: My latest National Catholic Reporter columna talks about the Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble performance I mentioned above, which I narrated to a packed crowd that mostly likely didn’t include you. KEY QUOTE: “But over the next two hours of practice, I lived in an aural and philosophical time warp. The euphoric Jouyssance members evoked not just the birth of Christ, but the birth of Mexico itself.”

“Karen Bass was no Nero — and now’s the time for her to prove that”: My latest L.A. Times columna talks about L.A.’s mayor. KEY QUOTE: “It’s an unrealistic standard — but one that Bass will have to answer to for the rest of her time at City Hall.”

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!