How a Times column about loquats became required high school reading

Los Angeles Times

a day ago

This month saw your humble columnist notch two huge literary achievements, the kind ink-stained wretches dream about.
I was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the commentary category for my coverage last year about the political evolution of Latinos, making me just the third-ever Latino to achieve that distinction.
Maybe even more impressive, however, was that portions of a column I wrote a few years ago became mandatory reading for hundreds of thousands of high schoolers across the country.
The occasion was the AP English Language and Composition exam, that annual ritual for smarty-pants high schoolers that allows those who get a great score to earn college credit. The exact column, you may ask? Not the subject of my Pulitzer finalist nod, or my arcane stuff, or my street-level coverage of Southern California life. Or even my rants against In-N-Out, which is overrated.
Nope, the subject was… loquats. The small, tart fruit currently ripening on trees all across Southern California, which forever puzzle newcomers and delight longtimers and squirrels.
In 2021, I wrote a columna arguing that loquats, not citrus or avocados, are our 'fruit MVPs' because they're so ubiquitous and beloved by many of SoCal's immigrant groups, including Latinos, Asians, Armenians and more. The piece also ridiculed an East Coast reporter who alleged that no one eats loquats in Southern California.
I'm very proud of it, but if I were to use one of my columnas to test college-bound high school seniors on their mastery of analysis and rhetoric, I wouldn't have used that one. Someone tell that to CollegeBoard, the nonprofit that administers the Advanced Placement exams along with the SATs.
I found out about my columna's inclusion last week after the second round of AP English tests concluded. Friends of mine texted me that their children who took it were bragging to friends about how they knew the 'loquat guy.' Students across the country took to TikTok to shout me out.
Some called it their favorite reading prompt. Others ridiculed my columna's description of a loquat tree heavy with fruit as 'glow[ing] like a traffic cone' or my stance that people who say no one eats loquats is an affront to Southern California's 'culinary soul.' Still others wondered what loquats were in the first place, how did they taste and where could they buy some.
In response, I created a TikTok account and filmed a short video of me silently staring at the camera while eating a loquat from my 4-year-old tree, which gave fruit for the first time this spring. 'Hello I'm Gustavo Arellano the Loquat King,' a caption read. 'What loquat questions can I answer?'
180,000 views later, I'm a TikTok loquat star.
But what exactly the AP test asked students about my piece remains a mystery.
A friend's kid told me test takers were required to read a passage from my piece in the multiple-choice section and then answer questions about 'word choice, claims, examples used, figurative language' and the like.
(I'm granting anonymity to the kid because CollegeBoard's exam policy states that anyone who shares any content from exams that haven't been publicly released will have their test scores 'canceled, no retest will be permitted, and you may be banned from future testing.' Gosh, can't you just give them detention?)
A CollegeBoard spokesperson declined to share the test questions about loquats with me because students are still taking it. They also asked I 'not disclose any information about them' because CollegeBoard sometimes uses the same questions in future tests 'and when information about them is shared, we have to discontinue their use.'
Too late!
I'm flattered, CollegeBoard. I'm not even angry that you didn't bother to at least give me a head's up. But I guess it's par for the course: Although I did take AP English at Anaheim High with Ms. Sinatra, I skipped out on the test because I figured it was for dorks and goody two-shoes and I didn't think I was either.
Oh, how wrong I was. I'll stuff my sorrows by eating a bunch of loquats this weekend, because no one else eats them.
Gustavo Arellano, metro columnistKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters
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