WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.659 OK, I want you to picture something for a second. 00:00:02.339 --> 00:00:06.059 The year is 2004. You're in Orange County, California. 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:08.660 Right, which, you know, has a certain reputation, 00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:11.179 the Orange Curtain, as they call it. Exactly. 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:15.140 It's this bastion of conservatism. So you're 00:00:15.140 --> 00:00:17.640 there. You pick up a free newspaper, an alt weekly 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:19.780 called the OC Weekly. And we should probably 00:00:19.780 --> 00:00:22.440 explain what an alt weekly even was for anyone 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:24.850 who, you know, didn't. grew up with them. That's 00:00:24.850 --> 00:00:26.910 a good point. It's not like today's media landscape. 00:00:27.109 --> 00:00:29.390 Not at all. Basically you had the big serious 00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:32.929 paid newspaper and then you had the free alt 00:00:32.929 --> 00:00:36.350 weekly. It was kind of the rebellious younger 00:00:36.350 --> 00:00:39.609 sibling. A little gritty. Funded by ads for local 00:00:39.609 --> 00:00:42.630 bands and futon shops. Totally. And editorially 00:00:42.630 --> 00:00:44.689 they were where you found the stories the big 00:00:44.689 --> 00:00:46.450 papers wouldn't touch. They had an attitude. 00:00:46.829 --> 00:00:48.469 So you're flipping through this paper and you 00:00:48.469 --> 00:00:51.829 land on a column with a title that feels Well, 00:00:51.869 --> 00:00:53.829 it feels like it's designed to start a fight. 00:00:53.950 --> 00:00:56.070 Yeah. It's called Ask a Mexican. I mean, even 00:00:56.070 --> 00:00:57.750 saying it now, it has a certain charge to it. 00:00:57.829 --> 00:01:00.689 In 2004, in that specific place, it was just 00:01:00.689 --> 00:01:04.230 radioactive. And you'd think, OK, this is a joke. 00:01:04.269 --> 00:01:06.390 This won't last a month. And you'd be half right. 00:01:06.530 --> 00:01:08.810 That's the amazing part. It was a joke. It was 00:01:08.810 --> 00:01:11.969 literally designed as a one -time spoof. And 00:01:11.969 --> 00:01:14.010 instead, we're here doing a deep dive on how 00:01:14.010 --> 00:01:16.469 that one -time spoof became a syndicated cultural 00:01:16.469 --> 00:01:20.189 phenomenon, won major awards, and then ended 00:01:20.189 --> 00:01:23.430 in this. this dramatic principled stand. It's 00:01:23.430 --> 00:01:26.150 an incredible story. So our mission today is 00:01:26.150 --> 00:01:29.650 to unpack that whole journey, the rise, the paradoxical 00:01:29.650 --> 00:01:32.359 acclaim. the fall of the industry around it, 00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:35.379 and finally, the resignation. It's a story about 00:01:35.379 --> 00:01:37.980 free speech, media economics, and intellectual 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:40.700 property that every single creator should hear. 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:42.640 Absolutely. Okay, so let's start at the very 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:44.640 beginning. You said it was a spoof. How did that 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:47.159 even come about? Well, Gustavo Arellano was a 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:49.579 staff writer at the OC Weekly, and he pitched 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:52.319 this idea basically as a way to satirize the 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:54.719 racial tensions simmering in Southern California. 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:56.840 Just poke the bear a little bit. Exactly. The 00:01:56.840 --> 00:01:59.290 premise was simple. Readers send in any question 00:01:59.290 --> 00:02:01.569 they have about Mexican -American culture, stereotypes, 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:05.409 you name it. And a persona, the Mexican, answers 00:02:05.409 --> 00:02:07.969 them. It just sounds like a recipe for disaster 00:02:07.969 --> 00:02:11.229 on paper. It could have been. But the execution 00:02:11.229 --> 00:02:14.009 was key. He wasn't just being offensive for the 00:02:14.009 --> 00:02:16.729 sake of it. He established a very specific format. 00:02:17.009 --> 00:02:18.770 Right. The sources say he'd answer two questions 00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:23.250 a week. But the tone was explicitly politically 00:02:23.250 --> 00:02:26.810 incorrect. And that started with the opening 00:02:26.810 --> 00:02:30.280 line. His signature. Dear Gabacho. Dear Gabacho. 00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:31.840 Every single time. You should probably define 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.400 that for people. Gabacho isn't exactly a term 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:36.840 of endearment, is it? No, not traditionally. 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:41.080 It's Mexican slang for a white American, sort 00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:43.979 of like gringo, but maybe with a bit more of 00:02:43.979 --> 00:02:45.740 an edge. So right off the bat, he's setting a 00:02:45.740 --> 00:02:47.960 tone. He's flipping the entire power dynamic. 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:50.560 Usually, you know, the expert voice in media 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:52.639 is the white voice explaining the other. Here, 00:02:52.780 --> 00:02:54.979 he's saying no. I'm the authority. You're the 00:02:54.979 --> 00:02:57.740 outsider. Sit down and listen. It was brilliant. 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:00.139 And because it was framed as a spoof, he could 00:03:00.139 --> 00:03:02.620 get away with so much more. He had cover. Yeah. 00:03:02.699 --> 00:03:04.840 And people, I mean, they just loved it. The column 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:07.199 went from a one -off joke to the paper's most 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:10.180 popular feature like overnight. But the questions 00:03:10.180 --> 00:03:12.979 weren't just fluff, were they? It wasn't all 00:03:12.979 --> 00:03:16.580 about why do Mexicans like tequila? No, and that's 00:03:16.580 --> 00:03:18.780 the Trojan horse of the whole thing. It started 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:20.879 with some of that, sure, the silly stereotypes, 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:23.939 but it very quickly got serious. Like what kind 00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:26.539 of serious? Like deep questions about illegal 00:03:26.539 --> 00:03:30.000 immigration, about labor disputes, about complex 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.639 class issues within the Mexican -American community. 00:03:32.979 --> 00:03:36.219 So people were using this satirical column. as 00:03:36.219 --> 00:03:39.039 a genuine forum for some of the most heated political 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:42.340 debates in the country. They were. And Arellano 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:45.180 would answer with this mix of biting humor and 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:49.000 actual factual history. He would hide the medicine 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:51.400 in the candy. Which brings us to the part that 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:54.080 I still can't quite wrap my head around. The 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:56.039 award. Yeah, the critical acclaim. When I hear 00:03:56.039 --> 00:03:58.500 about a column that intentionally uses racial 00:03:58.500 --> 00:04:02.500 slang and pokes at stereotypes. I don't immediately 00:04:02.500 --> 00:04:05.319 think award getting journalism. You'd think canceled, 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:07.780 right? But this was a slightly different era 00:04:07.780 --> 00:04:10.280 and the recognition he got was staggering. I 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:11.659 mean, let's just run through the list. Please 00:04:11.659 --> 00:04:15.479 do. OK, so in 2007, he gets the President's Award 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:17.399 from the Los Angeles Press Club. That's a big 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:20.240 deal. The National Hispanic Media Coalition gives 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:23.199 him an Impacto Award. OK, so he's being recognized 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:26.060 by both mainstream and Hispanic media groups. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.000 Right. And then in 2008, the California Latino 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.079 Legislative Caucus, we're talking actual elected 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:35.439 officials, they give him the Latino Spirit Award. 00:04:35.620 --> 00:04:39.209 Wow. So politicians are endorsing this supposedly 00:04:39.209 --> 00:04:42.470 politically incorrect column. It just shows that 00:04:42.470 --> 00:04:44.509 they understood he was doing something much deeper 00:04:44.509 --> 00:04:47.230 than telling jokes. He was forcing a conversation 00:04:47.230 --> 00:04:49.230 that needed to happen. But there is one award 00:04:49.230 --> 00:04:51.029 here that just seems like the ultimate paradox. 00:04:51.670 --> 00:04:53.910 The Association of Alternative News Weeklies 00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:57.389 gave him best nonpolitical column. Twice. Twice. 00:04:57.550 --> 00:05:00.269 How is a column tackling immigration and labor 00:05:00.269 --> 00:05:03.920 policy nonpolitical? That makes no sense to me. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:05.759 Well, that's the beautiful irony of it, isn't 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:07.579 it? I think it shows how the media establishment 00:05:07.579 --> 00:05:10.339 defined politics at the time. If you weren't 00:05:10.339 --> 00:05:12.959 writing a stuffy op -ed about tax brackets, it 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:15.980 wasn't considered politics. Because Ariana was 00:05:15.980 --> 00:05:18.699 writing about culture and using humor, they filed 00:05:18.699 --> 00:05:21.360 it under lifestyle. Even though culture is probably 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:22.899 the most political thing there is. Of course 00:05:22.899 --> 00:05:25.519 it is. He was probably shaping more opinions 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:27.879 on immigration than half the political columnists 00:05:27.879 --> 00:05:30.120 out there, all while being classified as a humorist. 00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:32.759 The satire was his passport to get into these 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:35.259 serious topics without people's defenses going 00:05:35.259 --> 00:05:38.279 up. Exactly. And that success naturally led to 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:41.620 expansion. In 2008, Scribner's publishes a book 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:44.300 collection also called Ask a Mexican. He goes 00:05:44.300 --> 00:05:47.019 from newsprint to hardcover. That's a major step. 00:05:47.180 --> 00:05:49.620 It is. And the syndication numbers really tell 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:52.399 the story. At its absolute peak, the column was 00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:54.759 running in 39 different markets across the country. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.800 39. So from one paper in the OC to nearly 40 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.160 cities. It was huge. You could be in Denver or 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:03.779 Houston and pick up the local Alt Weekly and 00:06:03.779 --> 00:06:06.860 read Dear Gabacho. So 2008 feels like the high 00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:09.220 watermark. He's got the awards, the book, massive 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:12.279 syndication. But the media business is, well, 00:06:12.379 --> 00:06:15.829 it's brutal. It is. And the story of the column 00:06:15.829 --> 00:06:19.069 from that point on perfectly mirrors the story 00:06:19.069 --> 00:06:21.490 of print journalism itself. The Great Collapse. 00:06:21.629 --> 00:06:23.569 The Great Collapse. If you look at those syndication 00:06:23.569 --> 00:06:27.449 numbers, it's a terrifyingly steep graph. The 00:06:27.449 --> 00:06:29.550 source material mentions an interview he gave 00:06:29.550 --> 00:06:32.629 in 2017 where he talks about the death of journalism. 00:06:33.029 --> 00:06:35.610 Yeah. By that point, the number of papers carrying 00:06:35.610 --> 00:06:38.029 in the column had dropped from 39 down to around 00:06:38.029 --> 00:06:40.970 12. From 39 to 12, that's more than two thirds 00:06:40.970 --> 00:06:43.970 of his reach just. Gone. It's devastating. And 00:06:43.970 --> 00:06:46.170 he even joked about needing to do a new census 00:06:46.170 --> 00:06:48.949 just to figure out where he was still being published. 00:06:49.170 --> 00:06:50.930 But it wasn't because people stopped reading 00:06:50.930 --> 00:06:52.730 the column. Right. It was because the papers 00:06:52.730 --> 00:06:54.870 themselves were dying. Exactly. The business 00:06:54.870 --> 00:06:57.069 model of the Alt Weekly was built on classified 00:06:57.069 --> 00:06:59.370 ads. And then Craigslist came along and just 00:06:59.370 --> 00:07:01.629 wiped them out. And Facebook finished the job 00:07:01.629 --> 00:07:04.430 on the ad revenue side. So you have this vital, 00:07:04.550 --> 00:07:06.810 important piece of commentary. But the ships 00:07:06.810 --> 00:07:09.230 carrying the message are sinking all around it. 00:07:09.509 --> 00:07:12.839 It's such a bleak picture of that time. But the 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:14.819 story doesn't just trail off into nothing. It 00:07:14.819 --> 00:07:17.579 ends with a bang, not a whimper. It really does. 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:20.319 It ends with a specific moment, a conflict that 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:22.959 says everything about the guy behind the column. 00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:26.680 October 13th, 2017, Gustavo Arellano resigns. 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:29.680 But it's the why that matters. This wasn't about 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:32.079 money or a better job. No, this was a moral stand. 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:35.240 The owner of the OC Weekly at the time came to 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:37.300 Arellano, who was the editor by then, and gave 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:39.160 him a directive. And that directive was what? 00:07:39.339 --> 00:07:43.029 Fire half of your staff. Wow. Just like that. 00:07:43.269 --> 00:07:45.269 Look at your team, pick half and show them the 00:07:45.269 --> 00:07:48.009 door. It's an impossible position for any leader 00:07:48.009 --> 00:07:50.589 to be in. But Ariyama's response was incredibly 00:07:50.589 --> 00:07:53.009 simple. He just said no. He refused to do it. 00:07:53.050 --> 00:07:55.569 He refused. And when they insisted, he chose 00:07:55.569 --> 00:07:58.110 to resign himself rather than fire the people 00:07:58.110 --> 00:08:00.410 who worked for him. That takes a level of integrity 00:08:00.410 --> 00:08:03.350 you just don't see very often to basically fire 00:08:03.350 --> 00:08:05.610 yourself to protect your team. It's a profound 00:08:05.610 --> 00:08:08.879 ethical choice. And it cemented his legacy. But 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.779 it also created a huge, messy problem. He walked 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:13.800 out the door. But what happened to his column? 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:16.759 What happened to Ask a Mexican? Right. Can you 00:08:16.759 --> 00:08:18.699 just take it with him? Go start a Substack the 00:08:18.699 --> 00:08:20.759 next day. He could not. And this is where we 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:23.480 get into the really important lesson about intellectual 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:25.779 property. OK, break this down because it's a 00:08:25.779 --> 00:08:28.399 distinction a lot of people get wrong. So Ariana 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:31.439 wrote the words. He owns the copyright to the 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:33.820 individual articles he wrote. But the newspaper, 00:08:34.139 --> 00:08:37.509 the OC Weekly. owned the trademark. And the trademark 00:08:37.509 --> 00:08:40.629 is the brand name itself. Exactly. The trademark 00:08:40.629 --> 00:08:43.909 is the name, the logo, the brand identity. Ask 00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:46.870 a Mexican was considered a product of the paper. 00:08:47.070 --> 00:08:50.029 They owned the title on the box. So when he left, 00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:53.549 the name had to stay behind. It did. He built 00:08:53.549 --> 00:08:56.769 this persona, this voice, this national brand 00:08:56.769 --> 00:09:01.039 from nothing. The corporation owned the nameplate 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:03.240 on the door. It's kind of heartbreaking. It feels 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:04.980 like a story you hear with rock bands all the 00:09:04.980 --> 00:09:07.940 time. The singer quits, but the label owns the 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:09.960 name of the band. It's the exact same principle. 00:09:10.179 --> 00:09:12.240 He made it clear in interviews, you know, they 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:14.500 own the trademark, but they don't own me. They 00:09:14.500 --> 00:09:16.840 don't own my voice. So could the paper have just 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:19.940 hired a new Mexican? Legally, they probably could 00:09:19.940 --> 00:09:23.700 have tried. But in reality, no way. Because the 00:09:23.700 --> 00:09:27.059 brand was him. His specific voice, his knowledge, 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:30.100 his humor, it was so unique. Any replacement 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:32.039 would have been seen as an imposter instantly. 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:34.659 The readers would have burned the place down. 00:09:34.899 --> 00:09:37.740 So the trademark, the brand, becomes effectively 00:09:37.740 --> 00:09:40.399 worthless without the creator behind it. Precisely. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.440 The paper held the legal document, but he held 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:47.019 all the actual value. It's a fascinating standoff 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:49.360 between corporate ownership and creative identity. 00:09:49.899 --> 00:09:52.659 It really is. So let's just recap this wild ride. 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:56.039 A one -time spoof from 2004. Becomes an award 00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:59.220 -winning, nationally syndicated column that actually 00:09:59.220 --> 00:10:02.320 shapes conversations on major issues. Its distribution 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:05.179 network then collapses as the newspaper industry 00:10:05.179 --> 00:10:07.720 implodes. And it all culminates in 2017 with 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:10.480 an act of defiance where the creator walks away 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:12.820 on principle, leaving the trademark behind but 00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:15.169 taking all the actual value with him. What an 00:10:15.169 --> 00:10:17.149 incredible story. It really forces you to think. 00:10:17.250 --> 00:10:19.009 It does. It leaves you with this kind of provocative 00:10:19.009 --> 00:10:21.889 thought about identity and property. Which is 00:10:21.889 --> 00:10:24.149 what? Well, if a company owns the trademark to 00:10:24.149 --> 00:10:27.070 a persona, but the creator owns the voice, the 00:10:27.070 --> 00:10:30.289 talent, and the soul, what is the brand actually 00:10:30.289 --> 00:10:34.629 worth without the human who gave it life? A question 00:10:34.629 --> 00:10:36.690 every creator should probably be asking themselves. 00:10:36.909 --> 00:10:38.970 A great place to leave it. Thanks for this deep 00:10:38.970 --> 00:10:40.649 dive. My pleasure. We'll see you next time.