The Chicano Movement, Then and Now

Romero’s confused and rambling diatribe made me think again of the times I shared a cold C ration or a warm canteen with the late Ruben Salazar. When he visited the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam, I was several times his escort while he reported on combat operations in 1965-66.

Salazar and I didn’t agree on everything, but I am sure he would have caught Romero’s monumental omission when she wrote about Chicanos’ declining income since 1969. Romero fails to mention that in that time hundreds of thousands--perhaps upwards of a million--came to Los Angeles from Mexico. The overwhelming majority are here in violation of immigration law. They arrived, penniless, in search of work, and most have found it. While this work is usually hard and poorly compensated, these new Mexican-Americans have chosen to remain instead of returning to Mexico, where their work, if they could find any, paid even less.

Romero has spoken against the efforts of her government to restrain illegal immigration from Mexico. Now she condemns that government because these immigrants, while far wealthier here than they could ever have hoped to be in Mexico, are not yet as rich as people whose ancestors gave them the benefits of generations of America’s opportunities.

MARVIN J. WOLF

Los Angeles