An Unnecessary Response

Agustin Gurza needn’t immolate himself in the lukewarm crucible of something so minor as an accident of birth (“Must a Critic’s Heritage Dictate His Opinions?,” Sept. 1).

What he laments as unique to minority critics is actually an ancient universality with no real racial component as such. What does he expect when dealing with Ricky Martin and Paulina Rubio, et al, and their acolytes? They’re merely south-of-the-border Mellencamps and Spearses. So what’s new?

Gurza’s responses to reactionary elements are unnecessary and counterproductive, not to mention solipsistic. How rather inadvertently hilarious, then, when, in his closing two paragraphs, he finishes his apologetics by pointing out his positive reviews of Mexican artists.

When it comes to the scions of political correctness, nothing is more satisfying than to observe a completely unconscious self-gaffing.

MARC S. TUCKER

Manhattan Beach