Mexicans in California

Re “ ‘Mexifornia’ Is a Tragedy in the Making,” Commentary, June 29: Is “Mexifornia” the newest item on the menu at Taco Bell or some made-up term that says too many Mexicans? Your commentary brought back my memories of what I once knew in Santa Monica.

I, too, remember when my neighborhood in the 1970s was a place where I walked freely and comfortably. We knew all the neighbors and they knew us. The entire block was our playground and all the kids played together regardless of race, until white families moved in and made it seem like a crime to play with each other.

When whites moved in, and in large numbers, Santa Monica became impersonal and unfriendly. From the Third Street Promenade and all its trendy, high-class shops to the entertainment industry on Olympic Boulevard, there was no room for our families and our culture. I, too, want my old city -- of Santa Monica -- back.

Rosa Maria Arroyo

Los Angeles

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Kudos to Victor Davis Hanson for courageously broaching a sensitive topic that demands both California’s and our nation’s attention. The author has brought to light the social problems our communities presently face as a result of recent immigration policies.

It is time our governmental leaders review and implement the successful and responsible immigration protocol of yesteryear, before California and other parts of the United States are turned into Mexican principalities.

Kevin Mellish

Upland

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Hanson declares “we are sorely in need of an honest national discussion” about immigrants residing in California, among which “many are illegal” and living in “de facto apartheid towns made up almost exclusively of Mexican immigrants.”

Sounds like Hanson has already conducted a “national discussion” with himself and suggests “we” -- Californians? Americans? English-speaking peoples? -- join him.

A professor employed at a conservative think tank, Hanson lectures, with thinly veiled scorn, at those on the left, who apparently (in his mind) have the upper hand in the discussion, dominating “universities, politics and the media.”

Then, in time-honored academic tradition, he “balances” his racially lurid argument by lobbing a few softballs at the right and “employers,” cites abundant anecdotal evidence and concludes that “tolerating an entire class marked by illegality stretches the social fabric thin.”

There we have it. Hanson has had it and so must “we.” I suggest that professor Hanson, instead of lecturing from the dais and thinking the “unthinkable,” remove his purple robes and get a real job serving his fellow human beings with respect and a little humility.

Tom Gossard

Los Angeles

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Hanson paints a bleak picture of life in Central California. There is no doubt that his description is accurate in a number of places throughout California. However, he fails to state the real tragedy of unlimited immigration, both legal and illegal. The runaway growth of our population, if continued, will drive our nation’s population to a half-billion by mid-century and over a billion people by 2100, which is the high estimate of the U.S. Census Bureau.

This means that we will have the equivalent number of people of today’s China. What kind of quality of life will there be for future generations?

I’m afraid that we will, by then, become another Third World country.

Byron Slater

San Diego