Over 500 fans of Gustavo Arellano showed up tonight for his book signing, over at the Yost Theater, in downtown Santa Ana. We all had a great time. Ruben Martinez (pictured above), who owns Libreria Martinez, introduced Arellano.
When Arellano strode onstage he had a large bag slung over his shoulder. He explained that the bag was used by an Uncle of his who used to pick oranges in Orange County. Arellano’s book is filled with such vignette’s of Orange County’s past – which is probably why he entitled it “Orange County: A Personal History.”
Arellano started out by thanking various organizations that helped him put on the event. Then he singled out Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez and asked everyone to vote for her, for Mayor of Santa Ana. He later mentioned that I was running for the Santa Ana City Council and he urged everyone to vote for me and get rid of Carlos “Busty” Bustamante.
Arellano also mentioned this blog in his book, referring to it as the schizophrenic, libelous Orange Juice – which is pretty accurate actually. Arellano also mentioned the other blogs in town, the Liberal OC and Red County, but he said that the Orange Juice is the OC Weekly of the political blogs in Orange County. High praise indeed! Thanks for the plug Gustavo!
Arellano then read from his book, and he shared additional stories with us. My favorite one had to do with his father, who wanted him to dress up Mexican style when he was growing up, complete with a Stetson hat. Well, Arellano finally made a deal with his dad. In return for his dad buying him a Sega Genesis game system, Arellano put on that hat – and the rest of the outfit. He wore it exactly one time!
Arellano brought his family to the event and had them stand up on the stage with him. This is America’s future, he opined. And he was right about that. And yes, his dad had on his Stetson.
After the book signing, everyone headed to Libreria Martinez, and then to the Memphis. It was a great night. I bought a copy of Arellano’s new book and he signed it thusly, “Art – you kick ass – keep it up!” Thanks Gustavo – I’ll do my best!
argh. i wanted to go to that but i had class till ten…maybe next time
Commie Girl would be lucky to get a crowd that big, but what would she do to entertain it if she ever did happen to? Semi-comedic insults? Random cursing? Or go ahead chickie and tell us again what we already know: OC denizens are shallow, consumeristic, ungrateful, and selfish. Duh.
GO STAVO! Yours is a book with an actual point: it wasn’t always like this. I think I speak for everyone here at OJ when I say ‘congratulations!’
SMS
sms, you just hate commie girl because she’s smart and beautiful. dont be such a jealous hater. this post was about gustavo and his new book and how cool it was that so many people showed up for this and how he mentioned the orange juice in his book not about how much you despise her. make sure you take your meds this morning.
I got a “¡Gracias Vern! Keep up the great blogging” and a promise from the Mexican to come to the Juice and comment more often. Spent some time talking to Cook and Ruben about the songwriter Cri Cri (Francisco Gavilondo Soler) whom I should really do some posts about. AFTER the election, OK?
It was also fun meeting Gustavo’s dad, as well as Lisann Martinez and her two great kids. (I guess me and Lisann had done antiwar stuff together before but I hadn’t really met her.) I hope she gets out there more and gives Crazy Claudia a run for her money!
Jose –
Yeah, because the two words that best describe me are stupid and ugly. Dude, get a clue.
I hate her because she wastes her talent on her own narcissism when it should be used for the common good. That’s her job as a supposed ‘journalist.’
SMS
It was nice to see the old Yost theater full of people, Gustavo was very entertaining in reading from his book.
Got to say Hi to many people I see around town.
And for an extra treat, Arellano brought with him California’s Gold, Huell Howser.
I just hope that Gustavo had as good of time as I did.
sms, you get a clue. never once did i say you were ugly or stupid. you’re a crazy loon that should be fitted with a straightjacket thats for sure. my point was that it was gustavos night and a lot of people showed up you should be happy for him and stay on topic like art says remember? no need for you to take this event and dirty it because you hate commie girl. what she does with her talents is her biz not yours. just remember, it was gustavos night. be happy for him and his family.
Thankfully, we don’t see much of Commie Girl any more. The BI-itch.
Jose = angry Dem. Frankly, I don’t think anyone should listen to him/her since it’s obvious the entire DPOC hates my guts for blowing the whistle on them. Rumor has is that they call me a plagiarist to this day – MONTHS after I intentionally ripped off a list from Gila Jones to piss her off. It worked.
So if you have something political to argue ‘Jose,’ please do so, but if you’re going to launch personal attacks, you shouldn’t hide behind a pseudonym and nobody should take you seriously as long as you do. Frankly, it’s highly unethical.
Besides, If you really wanted to keep the focus on Stavo then you shouldn’t have even responded to my comment. So tell me, do you feel like a tool yet or are you still mired in counter-productive denial?
SMS
oh, i’m a democrat now? thats news to me. and as far as a pseudonym i dont need one. when i first started reading blogs i started over at the liberal oc and i used to just go by jose but there was another jose on there so then i started going by jose s. jose is my real name and the “s” stands for sanchez which happens to be my real last name. my name is jose sanchez, so thats why i go by jose s. does that make sense to you? are you understanding me or are you hearing voices again? i dont care about the dpoc since i’m not a member and i dont care if you plagirised gila to piss her off. (i do thinks it’s strange you did that) personally i think you think too much of yourself if you think the whole dpoc is out to get you. they probably think you’re as much a loon as i do probably more. so when you say i’m unethical because i’m hiding behind a different name it shows you know nothing. and yes, it was about gustavo’s night and i felt it was important to point that out to you. he even had huell howser there for crying out loud! how f-ing cool is that?! and one more thing sms, the footsteps you hear behind you is one of those dudes from bellview with a net!
Hey Art?
Janet Endorsed Busty!
Where sthe outrage son? You promised to throw janet under the bus if she made this mistake. So lets have it. Or are we expect more empty promises from you Mr Candidate? Is this what we should expect from you as an actual council member?
SMS,
You serioulsy need to get over your obsession with Rebecca and stop trying to ride her coat tails to fame. Get a job for petes sake.
Art: Gracias for the gracious post!
Vern and Cook: Gracias for showing up.
Sarah: Gracias for the kind words!
POR NADA, mexican.
I think I’ve finally figured out the identity of ‘jose s.’ Does anyone else think it’s Lucas?
I’ll repeat what I said in the other thread that you hijacked: You. Mirror. Sooner the better.
SMS
PS: I obviously changed my mind about banning you. Don’t push it.
SMS,
In case you’ve forgotten, Art made a promise to never “out” the identity of commenters on your blog. Tread lightly.
anon 4:27 –
I’m not outing anyone. It’s merely an educated guess. Either way, the similarity of message and (lack of) writing style between the two make mine a reasonable conclusion.
SMS
SMS,
You should be aqble to see quite easily thta I am not Jose S by your admininstrative ability to see my IP address. I am not Jose S.
No, Juice sister, Jose S is his own very intelligent and piquant-though-punctuationless commenter, nothing to do with Paul. And I say that even though pinche Jose dissed me bigtime a month or two ago. You are letting paranoia infect your judgment.
SMS,
I realize you were guessing. Maybe. In written form. That’s why I suggested treading lightly. Everyone knows you have the capability of comparing IP addresses, and one could reasonable conclude that you did so in order to arrive at your “guess”.
Nothing about Jose S – not his content, style, or IP address, suggests that he is Lucas. And from anything I’ve seen he hasn’t justified being banned. Even though he was a dick to me not long ago, I think he’s a great commenter. I hope his comments aren’t being deleted (unless they’re worse than what I’ve seen)
I do notice he is controlling his tongue on the Janet-backs-Busty thing. The elephant in our living room right now.
‘I hope his comments aren’t being deleted (unless they’re worse than what I’ve seen)‘
We both know Paul and I think you know they were. 😛
SMS
I was talking about Jose S, and I don’t know if you’ve been deleting his comments.
Gustavo, made a little history of his own, a hundred years from now they will still be talking about O. C. History the real story.
I’m so glad that Gustavo had such a big turn-out, I like his wit. My kids (Young Adults) enjoyed the Yost especially the chairs. They found their Aunt Dolores Grajeda on one of the display pictures packing oranges.
They met Zack (rage against the machine) Carolina (El Centro Cultural de Mexico) Huell Howser (California Gold) they snapped some shots with Gustavo, Huell Howser, and Vern.
Thanks Vern for the comment, they are a great kids and this event gave us some bonding time. Thank You too Gustavo, I wished I would have asked a question so you could have given me a plug too! It was great bonding with my kids.
Vern –
Nope. Despite multiple temptations, I’ve never deleted ‘jose s’s’ comments. I’m sure if I had, he’d be complaining by now.
SMS
Congrats to Gustavo. That’s a great showing. I hope everyone there bought one of his books. 🙂
Sounds like it was great. Wish I could have made it. Thought I might not.
Glad that I went to the Pico Rivera signing on Tuesday. Much much smaller crowd – though more than Border’s could handle. Very much SRO.
hey “dorkbucket” sms, again you are wrong. this is getting to be a regular thing for you! and yes, you got me, me and paul lucas are the same person. and paul, dont forget to get up early and feed our chickens ok? and make sure you make it to band practice tomorrow on time we could easily be replaced. and iv’e been doing a lot of thinking lately and i think we should have a joint bank account so lets make sure we get on that ok? and lets make sure we give a generous donation to the “national idiot society” because we need to help people like sms get the help she needs because she’s becoming very paranoid and acting like a puzzled shrew. and once again lets not forget what this post is about, it’s about gustavo and his big night. and lissan martinez, thank you for being such a genuinely good soul i wish you could be cloned
Congrats Gustavo!
Please buy your book from Libreria Martinez and support his store. He told me that night that they are still holding on, but most likely they will have to downsize soon. Also, more after parties should be hosted by Ruben at his store. He really knows how to throw a party!!!!
Gustavo’s reading brought a great mish-mash of people: students, families, political heads, teachers, young, old…you name it…even Huell Howser made an appearance!
It was a great night for SanTana entertainment!