Latino Initiative

I am pleased that the Mark Taper Forum is starting the Latino Theater Initiative for the next four years (“Creating a Forum for Latino Audiences,” Oct. 28). Funded by the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Fund for $1.4 million, this should open the way for the Latino community to really take an interest in local theater. It is about time!

The entire Music Center complex has been an Anglo-dominated operation for as long as I can remember. The large portion of the city population that is Latino has never felt comfortable in it either as customers or participants. I am happy that this will now be changed, at least for the next four years. We Latinos are famished for English-language shows that employ producers, playwrights, actors and directors from the Latino community.

There is no doubt in my mind that Latinos will attend the Mark Taper Forum in droves in the coming months. The recent splendid success of Latino comics on TV shows that we are greatly interested in seeing “our own” up on the stage in English-language productions.

JOHN F. MENDEZ

Los Angeles