After nearly four years of immersion in Latin America's cultural capital, former L.A. Weekly writer Daniel Hernandez has released the book, Down and Delirious in Mexico City, to rave reviews.
"He's leaving L.A. Weekly not because of some New Times conspiracy but because Scribner has asked him to write a book about Mexico City based on his amazing cover story from last year," OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano writes. Hernandez, who Arellano credits as "the man who made my career" with a big profile in the Los Angeles Times, writes on his blog that the book will be "about the underground, basically -- youth and subcultures."
The blog LAist yesterday posted an interview with L.A. Weekly Staff Writer Daniel Hernandez, who recently won the 2006 Emerging Journalist award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Before he joined the Weekly in March, Hernandez was a reporter at The Los Angeles Times -- he profiled "¡Ask a Mexican!" columnist Gustavo Arellano back in February -- but he says writing for an alt-weekly is tougher. "At The Times I was just challenging the institutional and cultural barriers of an ultimately very conservative place. That was exhausting, and not very fulfilling," Hernandez says. "At the Weekly, there's all this freedom, and that means you have to be more careful and more thoughtful."
