Nationally syndicated columnist and bestselling author of "Ask a Mexican "Gustavo Arellano presents a tasty trip through the history and culture of Mexican food in this country, uncovering great stories and charting the cuisine's tremendous popularity north of the border. Arellano's fascinating narrative combines history, cultural criticism, food writing, personal anecdotes, and Jesus on a tortilla. In seemingly every decade for over a century, America has tried new culinary trends from south of the border, loved them, and demanded the next big thing. As a result, Mexican food dominates American palates to the tune of billions of dollars in sales per year, from canned refried beans to tortilla wraps and ballpark nachos. It's a little-known history, one that's crept up on this country and left us better for it.

The story began in 1918, when Gustavo Arellano's great-grandfather and grandfather arrived in the United States, only to be met with flying potatoes. They ran, and hid, and then went to work in Orange County's citrus groves, where, eventually, thousands of fellow Mexican villagers joined them. Gustavo was born sixty years later, the son of a tomato canner who dropped out of school in the ninth grade and an illegal immigrant who snuck into this country in the trunk of a Chevy. Meanwhile, Orange County changed radically, from a bucolic paradise of orange groves to the land where good Republicans go to die, American Christianity blossoms, and way too many bad television shows are green-lit.

Part personal narrative, part cultural history, "Orange County" is the outrageous and true story of the man behind the wildly popular and controversial column "Ask a Mexican " and the locale that spawned him. It is a tale of growing up in an immigrant enclave in a crime-ridden neighborhood, but also in a promised land, a place that has nourished America's soul and Gustavo's family, both in this country and back in Mexico, for a century.

Nationally bestselling author, syndicated columnist, and the spiciest voice of the Mexican-American community, Gustavo Arellano delivers the hilarious and poignant follow-up to "Ask a Mexican , " his critically acclaimed debut. "Orange County" not only weaves Gustavo's family story with the history of Orange County and the modern Mexican-immigrant experience but also offers sharp, "caliente" insights into a wide range of political, cultural, and social issues.

DEAR MEXICAN:

WHAT IS "ASK A MEXICAN!" ?

Questions and answers about our spiciest Americans. I explore the cliches of lowriders, busboys, and housekeepers; drunks and scoundrels; heroes and celebrities; and most important, millions upon millions of law-abiding, patriotic American citizens and their illegal-immigrant cousins who represent some $600 billion in economic power.

WHY SHOULD I READ "ASK A MEXICAN!" ?

At 37 million strong (or 13 percent of the U.S. population), Latinos have become America's largest minority -- and beaners make up some two-thirds of that number. I confront the bogeymen of racism, xenophobia, and ignorance prompted by such demographic changes through answering questions put to me by readers of my "Ask a Mexican!" column in California's "OC Weekly." I challenge you to find a more entertaining way to immerse yourself in Mexican culture that doesn't involve a taco-and-enchilada combo.

OKAY, WHY DO MEXICANS PARK THEIR CARS ON THE FRONT LAWN?

Where do you want us to park them? The garage we rent out to a family of five? The backyard where we put up our recently immigrated cousins in tool-shack-cum-homes? The street with the red curbs recently approved by city planners? The driveway covered with construction materials for the latest expansion of "la casa"? The nearby school parking lot frequented by cholos on the prowl for a new radio? The lawn is the only spot Mexicans can park their cars without fear of break-ins, drunken crashes, or an unfortunate keying. Besides, what do you think protects us from drive-bys? The cops?

The celebration of Mexican cooking that food lovers have been waiting for. Richly photographed and authentically local, L.A. Mexicano showcases L.A.'s famously rich and complex Mexican-food culture, including recipes, profiles of chefs, bakers, restaurateurs, and vendors, and neighborhood guides. Part cookbook, part food journalism, and part love song to Los Angeles, it's the definitive resource for home cooks nationwide, hungry Angelenos, and food-loving visitors. Features a foreword by Taco USA's Gustavo Arellano and more than 100 photos by Staci Valentine.

The celebration of Mexican cooking that food lovers have been waiting for. Richly photographed and authentically local, L.A. Mexicano showcases L.A.'s famously rich and complex Mexican-food culture, including recipes, profiles of chefs, bakers, restaurateurs, and vendors, and neighborhood guides. Part cookbook, part food journalism, and part love song to Los Angeles, it's the definitive resource for home cooks nationwide, hungry Angelenos, and food-loving visitors. Features a foreword by Taco USA's Gustavo Arellano and more than 100 photos by Staci Valentine.

One of the Top Urban Planning Books of 2022, Planetizen The full and fascinating guidebook that Orange County deserves. A People's Guide to Orange County is an alternative tour guide that documents sites of oppression, resistance, struggle, and transformation in Orange County, California. Orange County is more than the well-known images on orange crate labels, the high-profile amusement parks of Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, or the beaches. It is also a unique site of agricultural and suburban history, political conservatism in a liberal state, and more diversity and discordance than its pop-cultural images show. It is a space of important agricultural labor disputes, segregation and resistance to segregation, privatization and the struggle for public space, politicized religions, Cold War global migrations, vibrant youth cultures, and efforts for environmental justice. Memorably, Ronald Reagan called Orange County the place "where all the good Republicans go to die," but it is also the place where many working-class immigrants have come to live and work in its agricultural, military-industrial, and tourist service economies. Orange County is the fifth-most populous county in America. If it were a city, it would be the nation's third-largest city; if it were a state, its population would make it larger than twenty-one other states. It attracts 42 million tourists annually. Yet Orange County tends to be a chapter or two squeezed into guidebooks to Los Angeles or Disneyland. Mainstream guidebooks focus on Orange County's amusement parks and wealthy coastal communities, with side trips to palatial shopping malls. These guides skip over Orange County's most heterogeneous half-the inland space, where most of its oranges were grown alongside oil derricks that kept the orange groves heated. Existing guidebooks render invisible the diverse people who have labored there. A People's Guide to Orange County questions who gets to claim Orange County's image, exposing the extraordinary stories embedded in the ordinary landscape.