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1. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   Ask a Mexican: Breaking the Crypto-Mexican Code

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: November 20, 2008

   Dear Mexican: I recently received the biography of Rolling Stones bassist Ronnie Woods. While reading about his friendship with Jimi Hendrix, Ronnie described him as...

2. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   ¡Ask a Mexican!: Aztlan and Destino Manifesto

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: November 13, 2008

   Dear Mexican: In a column some time ago, you mentioned the Aztec prophecy claiming that “their descendants would reclaim ancestral lands in the southwest U.S., and guess...

3. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   Ask a Mexican: Sticker Schlock

   Why do Mexicans cover their cars with crap?

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: October 16, 2008

   Why is it that all Mexicans (not the pocho/Chicano Mexicans like me, but the border-brother ones) always have those stupid fucking stickers depicting the images of their huge...

4. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   ¡Ask a Mexican!: Special Recap Edition

   The meaning of "wab"; the Guatemalan question

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: October 9, 2008

   Dear Readers: I don’t like to rerun columns ’cause it makes me look like a lazy Mexican, but I realize that, as my column invades foreign terrain (Chattanooga!...

5. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   ¡Ask a Mexican! Bottom Line on Anchor Babies

   Plus, are Mexican men good in bed?

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: September 25, 2008

   Dear Mexican: What is an anchor baby? I am a 45-year-old male born in the U.S.A. My mother was born in ex-Yugoslavia (now Serbia), and my father was also born in ex-Yugoslavia...

6. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   ¡Ask a Mexican!: Special Catholic Edition

   Plus, Monica Palacios on how to come out to los padres

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: September 18, 2008

   Dear Mexican: I am a chicastruggling with the choice to come out to my parents about my sexual orientation. My family is Catholic and my parents are old school. While we are...

7. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   Pachuco: The Linguistic Origins

   Plus, the story on Orange County's ahistoricity

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: September 11, 2008

   Dear Readers: The Mexican’s new book, Orange County: A Personal History, is in your local bookstore on September 16 — by pure coincidence, Mexican Independence Day!...

8. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   The Illegal Has Landed

   One Mexican who doesn't give a caca about citizenship

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: September 4, 2008

   Dear Mexican: I’m an illegal alien. Got here on a tourist visa and stayed for a job. My gabacho employer knows about it and doesn’t give a crap. I don’t...

9. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

   Well Suited: The Legacy of the Pachuco

   Plus, the Mexican explains turista traps and babies as burritos

   By Gustavo Arellano

   Published: August 28, 2008

   I grew up in the 1950s in Montebello, California. There was an enclave within the Mexican community known as pachucos. As a little white kid, I found their mannerisms,...

10. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    Tongues Twisted

    Mellifluous D.F. diction meets Midwestern drawl

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: August 21, 2008

    Dear Mexican: I am the proud uncle of five Mexican-redneck kids who recently moved to Wausau with their mamá wisconsiana after living in la Capirucha all their lives....

11. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    Angry About "Anchor Babies"

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: August 14, 2008

    Dear Mexican: As a Mexican, I’m always ashamed of the fact that a lot of Mexican women just come to the U.S. to have babies and to utilize this country’s welfare....

12. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    The Tights Club

    When it comes to Mexican superheroes in Spandex, look to lucha libre

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: August 7, 2008

    Other than the infamous Tijuana bibles and now Memín Pinguín, I don’t know much about comics from south of the border. How about a short history of comics...

13. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    All Mixed Up Over La Raza

    The "cosmic race" celebrates miscegenation, not segregation

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: July 31, 2008

    Dear Mexican: What’s with calling yourselves “La Raza”? Being Mexicans, Chicanos or whatever isn’t enough — now you’re THE race? Sounds...

14. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    Special Tortilla Contest Edition

    Corn vs. flour: Cual es mas masa?

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: July 24, 2008

    Dear Readers: Gracias, merci, obrigado for the many submissions in our contest asking readers to argue in 25 words why corn tortillas are superior to flour, or vice versa....

15. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    Migra Headaches: Brown-on-Brown Crime-Fighting

    Plus, the Uber-Mex and the Zimmerman Telegram

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: July 17, 2008

    Dear Mexican: Why are there Mexicans in the Border Patrol? What a hypocritical thing to do to our people. —Carne Asada Carlos Dear Wab: Not only are Mexicans in...

16. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    Why Mexicans Love Elvis

    Aside from the pompadour, no gabacho can sing "Guadalajara" like he does

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: July 10, 2008

    Dear Mexican: What’s the fascination Mexicans have with Elvis? —Good Roceando Tonight Dear Gabacho: Your question is spot-on, but it’s taken a while...

17. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    New Slant on Italics

    And could Cesar Chavez be an icon of the Minutemen?

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: July 3, 2008

    Why are words in Spanish in your column in italics? I feel that including Spanish and Spanglish slang in articles should be read in a natural, conversational way and not be...

18. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    An Eye for an Evil Eye

    The Mexican explains the ojo de venado ritual

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: June 26, 2008

    My mother is from a very superstitious community of forest-dwelling indios in the state of Guerrero. It seems that every time someone in her family has a newborn, she asks,...

19. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    Fanning the Fuego at Dodger Stadium

    And special guest Benjamin Franklin on immigration

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: June 19, 2008

    Dear Mexican: I recently went to a Los Angeles Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium. It was good to see the familias having fun with their children, pero I then saw and heard...

20. ¡Ask a Mexican!®

    Summer Coolers

    By Gustavo Arellano

    Published: June 12, 2008

    Dear Readers: The Mexican has previously published only one Best Of column in his nearly four years of living in this country under his cousin’s identity, but I must pull...