KEY QUOTE: “But Bourdain transcended the culinary bubble in ways no one else has. This one will appear in print Sunday, but got published online just hours after news of his passing shocked the world. Man, I have brilliant friends.īusy, busy week! “Anthony Bourdain was the eternal compadre of overlooked Latinos.” I had three (!) California columans this week for the Los Angeles Times Opinion section. Gustavo’s Stories: The homie profe Steven Alvarez. Buy the book TODAY.Īnthony Bourdain coverage: Got cited and interviewed in a few spots, from my appearance on Parts Unknown with Bourdain at Cielito Lindo in Olvera Street to an interview on my old radio home, Airtalk with Larry Mantle about Bourdain’s legacy, and to my Twitter eulogy, and even Telemundo. Just bought this book by one of my reporting heroes, whom I got to meet last night at a Capital & Main fundraisers. READING: “In a Day’s Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America’s Most Vulnerable Workers,” Bernice Yeung. Most hopeful song I know, a song that never stops upping its joy. LISTENING: “Try a Little Tenderness,” Otis Redding. And whenever that happens, I remember:Įnough ranting. The throwaway nice line you give someone just might be the sunshine they needed. That’s why it’s important to check on your kith and kin at all times. Yet for many, such a support system is still not enough. And a group of angels who got my texts and calls at my lowest point, and pulled me from the pits of darkness. Friends who would line up job opportunities for me. Acquaintances who took me out to lunch, just because. Longtime fans who had never written to me before but expressed how much they appreciated my work. But the loss hurt.Īnd it led to one especially bad day, which I shared with the class: I blacked out and fell in a way where I could’ve easily been paralyzed for life but instead just suffered a bloody nose and a concussion (and an AMAZING list on son huastecothat I deleted in the haze that followed–FUCK).īut what saved me were ustedes. I consciously tried to stay away from alcohol in the months following that episode, because alcoholism runs in my family and would’ve been too easy a temptation. It’s a lesson I took to heart, I told the UCLA class, when I suffered through the darkest time of my life-when I left my Weekly job. I did it not to express my superiority, but to express relief that they finally spoke up, and that they learned a lesson. Letting frustrations and sadness and bad thoughts fester helps no one, least of all you, and usually leads to far bigger problems.Įasier said than done, of course, but I always smiled when my colleagues would tell me their issues, and I’d respond with a “What do I always say?” and we’d both respond with the same answer ala O-Ren Ishii and The Bride. If something bothered you about work, speak up. It was something I always emphasized to my colleagues at OC Weekly. But I will take the newsletter space here to double down on the point I emphasized to Profe Otto’s UCLA.Don’t suffer in silence. Me and Toño at Cielito Lindo in Olvera Street, after the filming of his Latino LA episode for Parts UnknownĪs you’ll soon see (and hopefully click), I’ve written and said a LOT on Bourdain’s passing in just the past 24 hours. This was two days before Anthony Bourdain committed suicide. It’s what many people-especially the young men-needed to hear, and I didn’t even know it. The room was quiet, but their eyes were hopeful and happy. But I always made sure to express my feelings, to ensure my thoughts didn’t become worse. So I told the truth: Of course I suffered from depression-it’s part of the human condition. But depression, I started to argue, was a privilege that I didn’t have time to waste on.īut just as I said that, I realized my machismo was going to help no one. I began babbling that I used to be back in the day, when I was reading too much Camus and spinning Pet Sounds after one too many broken hearts. The talk went great-students asked questions, and those who I identified as thinking me problematic warmed up by the end.īut I’ll always remember Profe Otto’s Spring 2018 class, because I finally got asked a question that shut me up (for a moment).Ī young man, in the front, asked the following out of nowhere: “Are you ever sad?” I always love speaking to college classes, because they bring an energy that other audiences don’t. For the past couple of years, Profe Otto has taught my ¡Ask a Mexican! book as a Swiftian approach to the ever-thorny issue of raza in this Republic.Īs the popuar paisa meme goes, “No, pos ‘ta cabrón.” He’s another legend who has long supported me during my career. This past week, I went to my other alma mater-UCLA-to lecture at the humor class of Chicano Studies professor Otto Santa Ana.
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