Gustavo Arellano to Visit Williams as Latina/o Studies Guest Speaker

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 28, 2013—Gustavo Arellano, journalist, author, and award-winning columnist, will present a lecture titled, “How Mexican Food Conquered America, and What a Taco-Dominated USA Means,” as a Latino Studies guest speaker at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 9. The event will take place in Griffin Hall, room 3, on the Williams College campus.

Arelleno’s talk will address the questions: What exactly constitutes “Mexican” food in the United States? How did it get here? What’s “authentic” and what’s “Taco Bell,” and does it matter?

Arellano serves as the editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange Country, Calif. He is also the writer of the nationally syndicated column “¡Ask a Mexican!,” in which he answers questions about the Mexican-American community. The column has a weekly circulation of more than 2 million in 39 newspapers across the U.S. and was named best columni in 2006 and 2008 by the Association of Alternative Weeklies for Best Column.

Arellano is the author of Orange Country: A Personal History and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. He received the 2007 President’s Award for the Los Angeles Press Club and an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Coalition. Arellano currently serves as a lecturer at the Chicana and Chicano Studies department at California State University, Fullerton.

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Published March 28, 2013