Gustavo Arellano was thrilled when he was asked to be a Commencement Speaker this year at UCLA. But then labor union activists asked him to skip out on UCLA in solidarity with them.
Arellano was torn as he grew up in a pro-union household. His mom was a union lifer. His dad was a truck driver who, while not part of a union, was always supportive of unionized truck drivers.
Arellan ultimately decided to give the speech and to use it as an opportunity to bring attention to the plight of service workers on campus whose jobs and pay are in jeopardy due to budget cuts.
I am glad he stuck to his guns and delivered. And I hope the University officials can find a way to help their service workers too.
I am sure the Kids were just thrilled he took their graduation day and turned it into LA RAZA protest!
Really, I would have thrown rotten eggs at the idiot!
Who the hell is responsible for this?
Of course Quinn didn’t listen to a word before spewing…
OMG, I just listened to the idiots speech….
O, those students must have been pissed!
I knew he was going to be a complete idiot and I was right!
So declares the sage genius of the OJ comments section. Can you name one idiotic thing ‘Tavo said?
yeah cause according to Quinn over here unions are bad and should never be formed
At least Gustavo can read and write in English.
Unions served a purpose about 50 years ago. Unions today make the political wing of the IRA look like amatures!
As far as Supermex is concerned “where do do you want me to start”.
I felt so sorry for the kids who graduated.I would have thrown my cap on the floor and walked out in disgust!
Art: Gracias for reposting! For readers who want to read it, you can click here!
Vern: I hope I made the Brooster family proud!
Michelle: Actually, I’ve received but one student complaint and HUNDREDS of compliments. You truly are a fool!
Gustavo,
You gave a great speech! Michele is just jealous because she was held back 21 times in kindergarten…
This just shows what an unprincipled hack Gustavo is. If he truly was principled, he would not have spoken. But his personal financial and $elf-promotional agenda won out. Using the purported bully-pulpit of a commencement address (which most students don’t listen to anyway unless the speaker is a real celebrity) to address labor inequity is a charade for his real motivation$. Under his logic, La Raza and MEChA should have their conventions in Arizona to use it as a soapbox from which to seek change of SB 1270. What a joke.
No Longer First Time Poster,
I think that analogy is a bit off.
Gustavo is a UCLA grad. He is a published author. He writes for the LA Times and the OC Weekly. He also does a radio show on NPR.
He clearly is a celebrity.
It seems like most of those complaining are doing so because he was speaking while brown…
I think so too. If he was asian or black and talked about the experience of that no one would say anything. I guess its en vogue to attack Hispanic people now that they seem to be on the rise
Gustavo is a good writer and speaker and all around interesting person.
Does anyone remember who gave the speech at your commencement?
There were two points in my post, apparently which got lost and neither of which Art retorted: 1. GA is a hack and had he balls he would have stood up for his beliefs and boycotted the commencement; however, being really a Self-promoting boob, he caved to his financial interst. 2. If being a union “sympathizer”, which apparently GA claims to be, immunizes him from being branded a heretic or a picket-line breaker, then, similarly, why wouldn’t La Raza or MEChA (or for that matter anyone who “claims” to be opposed to SB 1270) be immune from taking their action to the streets of AZ (and in the process spending money in AZ)? After all, no ecnomist worth their salt, be they libertarian, Kensyian or socialist would dispute that a boycot is retrogressive in nature.
The point of all this is the GA is selective in his principles. And someone who is selective isn’t a good role model for students at a commencement. Perhaps he should donate his honorarium to the union workers at UCLA?
No Longer: Um, I didn’t receive a single penny for my speech. Care to rephrase your worthless analogies? By the way, the workers were ultimately happy with my choice, so take your crying elsewhere…
And another point: Your point about SB1070 is HILARIOUS. Care to repeat it to the folks who went with Alfredo Amezcua on the bus caravan today?
Art: The only people who have opposed me on this are bona fide racists and people like No Longer, who don’t like me for a specific reason, of which there are many. No Longer: are you an A) Pedophile apologist B) Don Papi Pulido Apologist C) Skinhead, D) Armenian genocide denier E) Loretta apologist?
At least Gustavo can read and write in English
MQ says:
Thanks to the US taxpayer and legal residents!
“Michelle: Actually, I’ve received but one student complaint and HUNDREDS of compliments. You truly are a fool!”
MQ says:
I am not surprised you got HUNDREDS of compliments from future La Raza employee’s and one complaint from the poor student that had to listen to you’re politically correct nonsense…
I am sure there were lots of students thinking the same thing I did “shit not another Mexican Ra, Ra speech”.
Do you know why you bug me? You have the cheek to lie that you’re parents were immigrants, when in fact they came over the border in the trunk of a car!
You constantly put down Americans and their concern that people are coming into this country in the back of a car and sending their children to American schools using up resources that they themselves have a hard time getting for their own kids!
You where a complete drag on the graduation… You made a wonderful day full of hope and excitement into a call for “social justice” CRAP!
“he only people who have opposed me on this are bona fide racists and people like No Longer, who don’t like me for a specific reason, of which there are many.”
MQ says:
Sorry, I think your race is cool, you on the other hand are a complete brat! YOU are use to entitlements that have been handed to you on a silver plater….
Next time you make a speech, I suggest you bring your parents with you to THANK the American people for being tolerant enough to allow your ass into UCLA!
If the American people are as racist as you keep stating they are…Why are you’re parents still here?
I have read some of you’re OC rubbish and I suggest if the Americans want to ask a Mexican about something, YOU are not the guy to ask!
Since you’re parents are exactly the reason why the law in AZ is needed and you and you’re siblings are the reason why this state is broke… I would not be such an wanker to the American Public…
Art: In Ireland we do not have kG….That is another reason illegal Aliens like GA parents should be thankful. I bet like most illegal Aliens unlike Americans parents they do not pay for kinder-care!
Good night Mr. A.
Do me a favor, next time you get a letter from an American Citizen, thank him on behalf of your parents for you’re entitled life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIdfe2H3bXU&feature=related
Be very lucky the American people let you into their schools!
Know the real face of hate and bigotry and be glad you live here!
So MQ, your point is that Gustavo’s parents may have come here in a trunk (or not), and then in turn had a son who graduated from UCLA, holds a decent job, and speaks at university commencements?
Yes, this immigration thing is dangerous indeed. Commencement speaking gigs used to be for rich white people who had nothing better to do with their time than to dole out useless advice to bored students who didn’t care. But now, people like Gustavo are even taking those jobs. Where will it end, damn it, WHERE WILL IT END!!!
“So MQ, your point is that Gustavo’s parents may have come here in a trunk (or not), and then in turn had a son who graduated from UCLA, holds a decent job, and speaks at university commencements?”
MQ says:
No, my point is that he moans about how racist we RICH WHITE PEOPLE ARE when his ILLEGAL PARENTS not only are STILL here, but also he was allowed to STAY here with his ILLEGAL parents and graduate from an AMERICAN school!
Race has nothing to do with a boring speech…. In the last year I have found myself falling to sleep through a lot of VERY boring RICH BROWN speeches….
I would rather listen to Men like Einstein any day, than listen to some boring basket that happens to be brown!
Let me guess WW you don’t like white people…..Well join the Mexican band wagon!
OMG:)
GA: I am none of those. And fair enough, you didn’t get an honorarium; my mistake (two words I have never seen in print next to your name, demonstrating your demogagory). But it is unfathomable that you do not benefit/profit from having the bully pulpit . . . its marketing genius and sure to pay off for you. And yes, I do not like you. It has nothing to do with any of the reasons you cite. Rather, I find you to be a hypocrite and your trite psuedo-reporting to simply be silly. You pawn of opinion as facts and frankly don’t have a real good understanding of many of the things you report on. Stick with cultural and “color commentary”. You’re good at that. Reporting . . . not so much.
exactly!
🙂
I don’t think it’s so much of the not liking him, he just comes off as a smug kid born of illegal immigrants that gives his finger to the very people he should be thanking..
You’re right, I don’t like him!
MQ, please learn how to spell.
YOU first!
Quinn: First letter upper case with two N’s
😛
MQ,
Please, could you learn how too spell!
😛
“Know the real face of hate and bigotry”………….Michelle Quinn, I don’t know you but this seems to fit you to a tea party. Congratulations on fitting such a large number of racist comments into a single post.
Now, when you’ve settled down a bit, consider the fact that commencement speeches are meant both to inspire and to comment on the world graduates are facing. College graduates can handle it.
If you can handle it, Michelle, read this excerpt from a commencement speech by Bono at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004:
“There’s a truly great Irish poet; his name is Brendan Kennelly, and he has this epic poem called the Book of Judas, and there’s a line in that poem that never leaves my mind: “If you want to serve the age, betray it.” What does that mean to betray the age? Well to me betraying the age means exposing its conceits, its foibles, its phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths. Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will. Slavery was one of them and the people who best served that age were the ones who called it as it was, which was ungodly and inhuman. Ben Franklin called it when he became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Segregation. There was another one. America sees this now but it took a civil rights movement to betray their age. And 50 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court betrayed the age May 17, 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education came down and put the lie to the idea that separate can ever really be equal. Amen to that. Fast forward … what are the ideas right now worth betraying? What are the lies we tell ourselves now? What are the blind spots of our age?”
There will always be a percentage of people who are uncomfortable when someone shines a light on our blind spots.
.Michelle Quinn, I don’t know you but this seems to fit you to a tea party:
MQ says:
No, you don’t know me and if you are asking if I endorse the Tea Party; that would be a resounding YES!
“Congratulations on fitting such a large number of racist comments into a single post.”
MQ says:
Congratulation’s??? I don’t know YOU but anyone that congratulates someone for racist comments would be known as a RACIST!
Can you please give in detail my racist comments??
“There will always be a percentage of people who are uncomfortable when someone shines a light on our blind spots.”
MQ says:
The percentage is the 21% of what this country calls liberals!
Let me explain to you why liberals are the one’s with a blind spot:
They are usually white, elitist’s who have never really worked a day in their miserable lives and now rule this country as well as this planet with an Iron fist.
Liberals come in the form of: teachers, politicians, dictators, judges, reporters, priest’s, Rev’s etc… The children of the sixties that are now are supposed leaders!
The same bastards that spat on their own men/women coming home from a war!
The worst of the worst! So yes, the blind spot of the world is diminished by people of all colors who follow a worthy cause like the tea party who fights for the right’s of all men and women and not just a few!
Bono, is just another Liberal detached from the real world!
i am a ucla student, so i suppose you can add 1 more to disgusted, though i must also recognize that not one of my graduating peers, of my knowledge, approved of the choice of you as speaker. my only reason for attendance was for my family’s benefit. “ustedes” are you joking? disgusting for a commencement
Yet another UCLA student here and I thought you turned our commencement into your personal political stage. If you’ve only received one complaint, I suppose someone must be redirecting your mail for you. No one around me approved of your speech and that’s including many of my friends who are activists for immigration reform. I suppose you also didn’t hear the boos as you were speaking, or some of the retorts from the students. There is a time and a place for activist speeches, but a graduation ceremony should not turn into a rally for your cause. Yes, I’m saying “your” cause as opposed to “our” cause, because clearly you did not care about your audience. You were preaching to maybe 5% of the class and turning everyone else against you. I support immigration reform, but I think it was absolutely wrong of you to use a commencement ceremony as a platform for a one-sided speech about this issue. At best, it’s an issue that requires discussion and you did more harm than good for your cause. At worst, you hijacked a moment that was supposed to celebrate 4 years of hard work and effort, as well as inspire the class to future achievements.
“Ustedes”? Please, you didn’t even respect your audience.
Rebecca, I take exception to your taking exception to Gus’ use of “Ustedes.” As you may have noticed, our own English language has been grievously lacking in a second person plural pronoun since we dropped “YE” back in the tavern times. All contemporary attempts to remedy this fall short and sound provincially caricaturish: the southern crackers’ “Y’ALL,” the Valley girl’s “YOU GUYS” or the Jersey goon’s “YOUSE.” Gus’ chicano attempt to fill the gap is certainly no worse, or more stereotypical than those. (Altho’ I do think it has too many syllables to be a really good pronoun.)
What did you think of Flavia’s speech? I thought it kicked ass. http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/06/flavia-de-la-fuente-irvine-dream-activist-rocks-the-ucla-commencement/
And have you bought a Brooster shirt yet, from my son Dorian? http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/04/unveiling-uclas-new-mascot-the-brooster/
Vern. I iz no Jersey goon. Be careful attacking my roots. You might join Jimmy Hoffa.
I totally agree with you Rebecca, your four years of hard work was rewarded by hearing another blah, blah, blah from a Mexican Activist!
Sorry, for your loss!