Chicano Studies Protest at UCLA

In response to “UCLA Strikers End Fast; Compromise Reached,” June 8:

I am proud of my Mexican ancestry, but I don’t need UCLA or any state agency to help me learn about my cultural heritage.

If I feel the need to know about my true culture, all I have to do is pick up a book or go back and visit the country of my roots. Mexico will always be there as a living reminder and teacher.

Let’s all wake up to the reality that this multicolored melting pot we live in is now the new culture for us all. Our energies would be better spent in coming together instead of pulling ourselves apart, or else we will never find peace.

AL GUERRERO

Los Angeles

* I write as a member of the UCLA faculty who was born 63 years ago in East Los Angeles, and has taught in universities around the world. I always returned to UCLA because I am an Angeleno. Though my family came from the Ukraine and spoke Russian and Yiddish, Chicano history and culture are a part of my heritage. I am a product of the history and culture of those with whom I shared a neighborhood. They were friends and relatives of people who picked the fruit and vegetables we ate, built the houses we lived in, made our clothes, and who gave us Olvera Street, mariachi bands, the murals on Broadway and so much more.

As the major university in this city, it is fitting that UCLA lead the way to study and teach the history and cultures of the peoples who were here when we came or came here from south of the border. It is felt by many that more scholarship in these areas is needed.

I congratulate our students for their effort to get it and expect UCLA will meet this challenge with distinction.

NINA BYERS

Professor of Physics, emeritus

* My wife and I are on a hunger strike because our local college doesn’t have a Finnish department for her or a Celtic department for me. Nor does it have departments for our German, Swedish or Italian friends.

Matter of fact, neither of us was given any indoctrination in our cultures in kindergarten, grade school, middle school, high school or in college. We will survive, however, as we both learned to be “Americans” in our homes and that is all we need to live in America.

PETER R. McGOWAN

OLGA E. McGOWAN

Long Beach

* I want to express my gratitude for your excellent coverage and editorials regarding Chancellor Charles Young versus Chicano people everywhere. Young is the best example of why we need the Chicano studies department.

There has been an absence of Latino leadership for decades, including politicians, that a Chicano department would help ameliorate; it takes confidence to be a leader, self-worth to have confidence, pride to have self-worth, and knowledge to have pride.

Finally, the 40% Latino population in this city has a shot at developing future leaders. Please do not be ashamed; be proud.

STEVEN D. VALDIVIA

Whittier

* Thank God there are still academics (“A Political Assault on Academic Values,” by Robert Dallek, Commentary, June 9) with the guts to speak out for learning and civility. While a student at UCLA, I attended various ethnic studies lectures, and each was rife with shrill political rhetoric. The few times I expressed an opposing view I was jeered and shouted down by students.

I did, however, miss Dallek’s lectures; I wish I hadn’t.

NICHOLAS SCHROEDER

Redondo Beach