SANTA FE BACKWASH

I read “Culture Clash, Santa Fe Style” (by Bruce Selcraig, Sept. 5) with great interest. I planned to spend five days in Santa Fe, but after reading the article, I canceled. Since I’m not rich and am Hispanic, it seems that I’d have had two strikes against me, and I wouldn’t want to go all the way there to strike out.

I really wonder if Mayor Sam Pick knows where he stands on any issue. He refers to residents of Santa Fe as them and they , and he calls new residents they and them , but when he refers to the developers, he seems to include himself in that category.

DAVID J. MARTINEZ

Redlands

I used to love Santa Fe. The last time I went, though, the culture shock was a culture jolt.

I was aghast at the ostentatious wealth. The first person to shock me was a middle-aged peroxide blonde with a New York accent, wearing perhaps $10,000 in old silver conch around an expanded waistline. On her ample bosom bobbed an equally valuable squash-blossom necklace. Two others with California accents followed, with huge carats on their hands and wearing Western garb. Are these the “inheritors” of a land where pueblo , earth and sky form a magical harmony?

Laws ought to be passed that would exempt houses that have been in the same families for more than 100 years from paying property taxes. That would enable the few families who have roots in this area to hang onto their piece of earth and pass it on to their children.

KARIN FINELL

Santa Barbara

How do you say deja vu in Spanish? The resentment and anxiety felt by Hispanics in Santa Fe is a mirror image of how we in Los Angeles respond to the current wave of Mexican immigrants to this city. To quote Debbie Jaramillo: “They bring their culture, their values, and we are supposed to assimilate.”

Another irony about Santa Fe is that many of the Hispanics themselves have oppressed Mexicans. Now that the Santa Fe Hispanics are on the receiving end of discrimination, I want to look in my Spanish-English dictionary once more. How does “What goes around comes around” translate?

AYANA GREEN

Los Angeles

If Jaramillo thinks that newcomers won’t bring “ their cultures, their values” with them, she’d better take a good look at Southern California. I continue to live here in an overpopulated, multicultural region because I still think it’s the best place to live, despite its problems. If and when I change my mind, I’ll move--maybe even to Santa Fe.

MICHAEL SCHALLER

Temple City

It is useful in thinking about the culture clash in Santa Fe to recall that the very heart of the city--the Plaza--was “commissioned by Spanish nobility soon after Santa Fe’s founding in 1610.” From the very get-go, the land was claimed by rich outsiders, and today that ancient history continues. Instead of Spanish nobility we have America’s cultural elite claiming the Plaza. What’s the difference between the 1600s and today?

MARSHAL ALAN PHILLIPS

Los Angeles