VIVA VALDEZ

To accuse playwright Luis Valdez of “selling out” in “I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinking Badges” is ludicrous (Calendar Letters, Feb. 9), and I for one am appalled at hearing upward-mobile, pseudo-intellectual (am I being redundant) Latinas parrot this line.

Most critics and letter-writers are missing the point of Valdez’s last play. His main thrust was to castigate the media for the “crumbs” they throw at ethnic-minorities in demeaning roles--anything else was incidental.

Valdez’s ability to castigate the media, second-class citizenship and our immoral foreign policy, and still entertain and make us laugh, is brilliant.

ABEL PENA

Los Angeles

Dan Sullivan analyzes Valdez’s new play on Page 44.