Canto CDLXIII: My My Matraca

Gentle cabrones:

This Tuesday, insha’Allah, I will be watching Mexico play God-knows-who in the first round of the World Cup knockout stage.

And I will wield this:

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A matraca. Wooden noisemaker. LOUD.

I’ve wanted one my entire life but never got around to buying one until last weekend. I’m sure I asked my parents when I was small for the Mexi ratchet, and they probably said no because I make enough noise as it is — I’ll get back to that.

A matraca is not a polite instrument, so you can’t take it to baseball/football/basketball/hockey games in the United States. Hell, stupid FIFA ain’t allowing them and vuvuzelas during matches, because FIFA is garbage. And that’s why I always wanted one. It’s a working class treasure, a humble Holy Grail for the passionate and a challenge:

If you’re going to cheer, CHEER. None of this polite golf clapping. Yell. Scream. Stomp. Don’t be vulgar, don’t harm others. But be loud.

Make yourself seen. Be an example for others to follow. LOUD.

Can you believe I’ve gotten in trouble for cheering too boisterously? Of Corsica!

At a Los Angeles Press Club Awards dinner probably a decade ago, I kept shouting and screaming every time the Infernal Rag or someone I knew won that the table next to me told me to shut up. When I was at the Orange County Press Club Awards earlier this week, strangers at the table I sat at scrunched their faces when I grabbed cutlery and began pounding the table with it.

I’ve been told to lower my voice at banquets, get weird looks when I throw out a cumbia parrot shriek, and was once told “Dude, chill” during a scholarship banquet at Orange Coast College just because I kept yelling the names of people I knew who were winning some.

All for being happy. Legit cheers, not sarcastic or fake ones. And sober, no less.

Well, this matraca is my revenge on those puritans.

Bought it in Olvera Street. Pure wood. Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.

When I wield it on Tuesday, people will smile…until they won’t. Or maybe they won’t stop smiling? Or maybe they’ll join in?

I’m excited — and hopeful.

If you’re going to do something, do something. WERK (Canto passim ad nauseum)

And if you’re going to do something, commit yourself to excelling at it. Train. Tírate. Throw down. Get the materials or tools you need, even if it takes you a lifetime to do so.

Why did I delay buying a matraca for so long?

I wasn’t in the place to buy one — literally, and mentally.

Although you can buy anything on Amazon, I don’t. And while I go to Tijuana a lot and Olvera Street a few times a year, they were never visible and thus not on mind.

A matraca is a commitment that you’re going to BRING IT. And while I love to see and follow sports, I really don’t have any teams anymore — definitely not in professional sports, while UCLA and Notre Dame in football became underachieving long ago.

But now comes El Tri. Mexico’s men’s soccer team swept through their World Cup group — and for their reward, they no doubt will get a hell of a third-place team, mostly like. If they advance, they get to face off against the Mbappés and Messis and Haalands of the World Cup.

And yet…

You come in ready to give it all when you have to come in. No half-assing. DO IT DO IT DO IT. You be the Man of la Mancha, and dream impossible dreams. The crowds in downtown SanTana I’ve seen after every match have been like a limpia for the area after the devil that was migra raids at this point last year and some of the most joyous celebrating I’ve ever seen this in my life. How could you not want to join in, damn the world?

No country does that like Mexico — no country should, frankly. But here we are, so here’s my matraca.

Come Tuesday, I’ll be swinging — or is it stirring? Wielding? Shaking? — that matraca. I’ll be doing it until I can’t — because that’s how you’re supposed to do it.

Nothing else for me this week — ustedes deserve a short canto, for once. So I’ll leave you with as obvious a message as I’ll offer: go get the matraca you need, too.

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat

**

Enough rambling. This was the semana that was:

IMAGE OF THE WEEK: Terrible photo of GREAT brisket taco at Heritage Barbecue in San Juan Capistrano. Columna to come…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “It actually made me feel really, really good. I actually realized that I felt like somebody important, because I caught the attention of 60,000, plus you guys, plus the whole world, watching a guy that is, you reverse the time back 15 years ago, I was sitting under a mango tree without 50 cents to pay for a bus. And I was the center of attention of the whole city of New York. I thank God for that, and you know what? I don't regret one bit what they do out there.” — Pedro Martínez, on facing the haters at Yankee Stadium

LISTENING: “Es Lupe,” Los Johnny Jets. The raw happiness of Latin American rock bands from the early to mid-1960s — where they were mostly doing Spanish-language covers of English hits — have always called me, and here’s the ultimate proof. It’s a remake of The McCoys’ “Hang on Sloopy,” a song I’ve always not liked — but with this version I can finally appreciate some of the musical tricks the original tried to do but which Los Johnny Jets accomplish, mostly through their messiness. Hence included in Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly Radiola of Randomness YouTube songlist, where I’ve included every song I’ve ever featured in a canto — give it a spin!

READING: “The joy and wonder of Cabo Verde's unlikely World Cup journey”: A tad overwritten, but a fabulous profile of a people, a diaspora, a place, a team — and now, not just a World Cup qualifier but into the knockout phase.

Gustavo Events  

June 27, 12:30 p.m. aka TODAY: I will be part of "The Untold Stories of Latinos in the IE" with the Inlandia Institute at the Culver Center Theater Room, 3834 Main St, Riverside. Lecture, FREE.

July 18, 1 p.m.: I’ll be in conversation with legendary reporter Sam Quinones about his new tone poem/photo essay about L.A. murals featuring the Virgen of Guadalupe, for which I wrote the forward! At the Edendale branch of the L.A. Public Library, 2011 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. Event is FREE; books, BARATO! Make your reservation here!

Gustavo in the News

“La Abeja”: My former OCC student, Fresno Bee accountability reporter Melissa Montalvo (subject of a future Random Cool People I Know), writes up our recent lunch for the newspaper’s great Latino-themed newsletter which you should all subscribe to because you otherwise can’t read it!

“‘Hard to believe’: Access is finally coming to one of California’s most glorious and inaccessible waterfalls”: A Los Angeles Times newsletter you should subscribe to plugs a columna of mine.

“Latinx Literature of Los Ángeles and Southern California”: THis is from 2022, but I found this mention of me in a good piece about the subject at hand.

“ENE Editor honored with “Dave McQuay Award for Best Columnist” at OCPC Awards”: My turn as co-emcee of the recent Orange County Press Club awards is mentioned.

“🗞️ Riverside News- June 26, 2026“: A mention of my Inlandia Institute appearance.

“The Patron Saint of Lost Causes: Gustavo Arellano’s Hero System”: Luke Ford — someone who was someone in L.A. media in the early 2000s — does a REALLY insightful analysis of my overall mission, even if he gets some facts wrong or wildly overstates them. I need to get him to interview me the way he did Alisa Valdes-Rodríguez back in the day!

“À la Recherche du Taco Bell: One Gabacho’s Run for the Border”: A Substack cites a citation of mine from 2008.

Gustavo Stories 

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

“Why LA's East side bears the brunt of environmental damage”: My latest KCRW “Orange County Line” commentary talks about the eternal environmental racism in Boyle Heights and East L.A., among others.

"The Supreme Court ruled on two major immigration cases in Trump's favor. Here's what this means for immigrants.”: I appear on the “This Week in ICE” podcast to rant against migra.

“The Boyle Heights fire is latest pollution crisis to affect L.A.’s Eastside”: My latest L.A. Times Essential California newsletter puts into context a terrible warehouse fire in Boyle Heights. KEY QUOTE: “I drove up the 5 Freeway on Saturday morning and the smoke emerging from the Lineage Logistics building slowed down traffic considerably, with visibility for the stretch similar to a foggy day and drivers snapping photos of the disaster to our west.”

“A close-up look at the damage caused by the Boyle Heights fire”: My latest L.A. Times video offers a dispatch from the Boyle Heights fire.

“Thanks to the World Cup, I’m finally learning the words to the Mexican national anthem”: My latest L.A. Times columna talks about the subject at hand. KEY QUOTE: “But I will do it — a little victory in the long battle for freedom that never ends.”

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!