Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, covering Southern California, everything, and a bunch of the West and beyond. He was a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary and the Mike Royko Award for Commentary and Column Writing and was part of the team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News for reporting on a leaked audio recording that upended Los Angeles politics.

Arellano previously worked at OC Weekly, where he was an investigative reporter for 15 years and editor for six, and wrote a column called ¡Ask a Mexican! and is the author of “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.”

He’s the child of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy (Los Angeles Times).