Time blurs vision of Aztlan
Re “Vision That Inspires Some and Scares Others: Aztlan,” July 7
The Times fails to mention the No. 1 reason that Mexicans would never try to reconquer the Southwest and make it a part of Mexico: They don’t want to be in Mexico. Immigrants come to the U.S. because Mexico lacks economic opportunity and suffers from corruption and political instability. To reconquer the Southwest would defeat the purpose of immigration. Regardless of whether Mexicans consider Aztlan an actual place or think that the Southwest U.S. is “stolen land,” no one wants California to be a part of Mexico.
EDGAR CABRAL
La Puente
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Mexican Americans’ nostalgia for Aztlan as some sort of pre-Columbian idyllic society is at best a distortion of truth and at worst a poor demagogic history. If the theories of the Latino student group MEChA are correct, then it can be viewed that the Aztec invasion from the north was a conquest of the indigenous tribes in southern Mexico. When Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes arrived in the 16th century, how was he able to defeat the Aztecs? The Spanish had a great deal of help from local tribes that turned against the Aztecs, who had brutally ruled over them.
CHARLES F. SERIO
Los Angeles
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