UCLA Students Looking to Fire Gustavo Arellano
UCLA students have started a Facebook page protesting Gustavo Arellano as the keynote speaker of the 2010 graduation ceremony. “We can do better, we are in Los Angeles for goodness sakes. Why can’t we get someone more famous??” the Facebook page description reads. Commenters put it more plainly: “Who is this guy?”
In the alt-weekly world at least, Arellano is a well-known figure. A long-time writer for the OC Weekly, his “¡Ask a Mexican!” column appears in 35 newspapers throughout the country. He is the author of two books, and his media appearances include Today, Nightline, and The Colbert Report. Don’t college kids love The Colbert Report?
Sammi Holzer, the founder of the protest page, tells the Daily Bruin objections to Arellano aren’t limited to his relative obscurity:
Holzer acknowledged his accomplishments but said some students in the group did not think Arellano embodied their graduating class, citing an article in which Arellano said that he did not attend his own graduation from UCLA.
“We would just like someone to speak at ours who cared enough about his own graduation to go,” she added.
Hat tip LA Weekly
