Mexican Immigration

Re “Mexican Arrivals Seek New Frontiers,” Jan. 1:

I read the article on Mexican immigration with no small amount of glee. The history of the American theft of the Southwest is being replayed in reverse and on a national basis.

The main culprit in this, however, is not the Mexican national who comes here to work and pay taxes. No, the real culprits are greedy large and small businesses in America that hire the undocumented and the unwillingness of Americans to do these jobs.

The historical irony is that Americans who immigrated to Mexico’s California and Texas in the 1840s became Mexican citizens, not unlike the experience of my mother and thousands of other Mexican emigres who became American citizens in the 1950s. Like these earlier American immigrants to Mexico, she and others kept their language and cultural attachments intact. This was due to proximity of their homeland and a consistent influx of Mexican immigration. The United States is simply being hoist with its own petard! Mexico is simply getting even some 150 years later.

Any rancor should be directed at the businesses that employ these immigrants, not the immigrants.

RALPH M. CASILLAS

Los Angeles

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In the article, Gregory Rodriguez of Pepperdine University states: “We are maintaining our ‘Mexican-ness’ even as we become American--in a way that Italians, Irish, Jews and Greeks could not.”

I, as an American of Hellenic (Greek) descent born in this country, have maintained “my Hellenism (Greekness).” So have a majority of children born of Greek parents, even to the extent of intermarriage.

How Rodriguez feels we haven’t maintained our culture and language in this country, similar to the Mexicans, is beyond me. Because he does not see business signs in the Greek language? Many events taking place in the Greek community in Los Angeles go unreported. So how would anyone know? We are proud of our many contributions to America and the world, and continue to share it.

PHILIP GEORGIOUS

El Segundo