Hybrid Influences
Re “The Immigrants’ View of Education,” Opinion, Aug. 25: Will The Times next have the Irish poet Seamus Heaney comment on Irish American mobility? Carlos Monsivais writes wonderfully and insightfully on Mexico and Mexicans. He is out of his league when talking about the new breed of folk called the Mexican American.
The mind and spirit of a Mexican American child are formed on this side of the border by hybrid cultural influences unknown to the likes of Mexican intellectuals. These children are not Mexicans who happen to be American citizens. They are, first and foremost, Americans whose parents or grandparents hail from Mexico. As such, their destinies are not predetermined by social and educational patterns in a country in which they have never lived. They are shaped and are capable of being reshaped right here in the U.S.
MANUEL H. RODRIGUEZ
Burbank
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