Drawing Parallels Between Latinos, Italians

* Frank Del Olmo’s article “Latinos Can Look to an Italian Legacy” (Commentary, Oct. 20) amused, surprised and worried this son of an immigrant Sicilian.

I was amused that anyone would think the term “wop” stood for “without papers” since the Oxford English Dictionary gives the correct derivation as originating from the dialect word “guapo” meaning “handsome.”

I was surprised to learn that half of the 4 million Italians who migrated to the U.S. between 1880 and 1920 returned to Italy, since I and my friends had never heard of one doing so. Certainly Sicilians were unlikely to do so because of the danger stemming from the ever-present vendettas back home. The worry comes from my inability to recognize the place that the “Excited States of America” has drifted to lately. When someone called me a wop when I was young, my first inclination was to laugh or retaliate with another epithet. Sometimes we resorted to “sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never harm me.”

How did we become so thin-skinned these days? Of course, epithets have the intent to hurt, but why do so many of us claim to be hurt by mere words? Whatever happened to the resilient nature of Americans?

FRANK CANNONITO

Irvine

* Although I do not agree with the general premise of the article, which continues the myth that the Latino experience in the United States must in some way conform to that of Europeans, what I find most offensive is the reference to Latinas as “attractive wives” who must marry outside of their culture to further their “social mobility.”

Latinos do not conform to the stereotypical views of macho culture perpetuated by the media. Latinos are hard-working, they love their families and support their wives and children in the realization of their dreams.

What about Latinos who marry outside of their culture? Are they “attractive husbands” working to further “assimilation and acceptance”? Is “acceptance” defined as being invited to events where they can enter based upon the Anglo appearance of their spouse?

As a Latina professional, who did not have to marry outside of my culture to find my own social mobility, I am deeply offended.

ESTHER L. VALADEZ

Los Angeles