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MUY PISSED
Are you kidding me with that article “Five Latinos We Really Like” (March 31)? That is a preposterous selection. Two of them aren't even Latinos?! One of them is a Taco Bell guy, which is not even really Mexican food. It's a bastardized version; many Mexicans would never be caught dead eating there. Not even for a 39-cent fake burrito.
I knew Orange County was conservative, but the paper should reflect some integrity in publishing a list of Latinos when two of them are not even Latino. That is telling the Latino community that you can't find enough Latinos to “like”; therefore, you must include whites as well. Shame on you! Why don't you take a cultural-sensitivity class? I happen to teach Mexican-American studies, and if you attempted to turn your list in as an assignment, you would have been laughed right out of the room!
Francisco Gonzales via e-mail
I am writing to express my outrage concerning “Five Latinos We Really Like.” Forgotten among these pillars of the Latino community is the matriarch of OC Latinos, the incomparable Barbara Coe. How could the OC Weekly forget this leader of Latino rights? Her myriad achievements in helping the Latino community include being the president of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform; playing a major role in Propositions 187, 209, 227 and “Son of 187”; and supporting Voice of Citizens Together, the noted Latino advocacy group. Let us also not forget the beautiful billboards her group has put up across our state giving Latinos free advertising. Babs also full-heartedly supported the proposal of noted Latino activist Harald Martin (who, thankfully, made this list) to save Latino students from themselves. A woman with such a proven record of activism in the Latino community should not have been excluded from this list, and I will boycott this newspaper and encourage others to do so until an apology is written to all Latinos concerning this issue.
Gustavo Arellano Anaheim ON TARGET
I found Matt Coker's Mossimo bit interesting (A Clockwork Orange, April 7). I remember an Orange County Register article from before fashion designer Mossimo went public about discounters getting brand items through background channels. It quoted Mossimo Giannulli relating how an employee of his called him from a Price Club to tell him that Mossimo T-shirts were for sale on the floor. Mossimo was outraged because his brand would be cheapened (he thought) by being at a discounter, so he asked Price Club to sell them to him at their cost. They refused. He ended up paying retail of $100,000 to get the T-shirts out of the store so as not to sully the Mossimo name. Now he's dealing with Target. Oh, irony!
David Matts via e-mail 'STOP HISTORY, I WANT TO GET OFF'
I have something to say to Miss Rebecca Schoenkopf. Your article “We Love a Parade” (Commie Girl, March 10) is embarrassing. Where do you get off saying that if gays are good enough for Dolly Parton then they should be good enough for you? I have only one word for that excuse: “Weak!” You sound like my 8-year-old nephew. And to all the people who voted for Proposition 22—yes, the “smug fucks” —I applaud you. A marriage should only be between a man and a woman. That's the way it's always been, and that's the way it always should be.
Inez Correa via e-mail PATTI SMITH ALWAYS BLEW
Re: “People Have the Power!” (Music, April 7): Gosh, Mr. Rich Kane, I sure am glad you can set the record straight. I remember going to CBGB back in the day and Patti Smith would clear out the room. We'd be all like, “Who the hell is that?! She sucks!!!” But I'm glad to find out that the room emptied out because of all the “electricity” and not because ol' Patti put on a crappy show. Then later on, we thought of her as a posing one-hit wonder whose one hit, worse yet, was a cover of a bombastic piece of crap by that honking master of bombast, Bruce Springsteen. Anyway, it's reassuring that “the revolution” is in such capable hands.
Peter Jones via e-mail INJUN KILLER
Very interesting article regarding Father Serra and the implementation of the mission system in California (Bob Emmers' “Apologize for This,” March 17). Anyone who denies that indigenous peoples of the United States got shafted might as well be lumped together with Holocaust deniers. Whole populations along the eastern seaboard were either slaughtered or reduced to insignificant numbers due to the diseases that the “civilized” Europeans brought with them.
It was no different here in California, even up to the early 1900s. My grandma once told me that it was far better to consider yourself Mexican than Indian during that period; she was half Juaneo. That should give people some idea as to the negative perception of Indians during that time period. Talk about being screwed!
Ted Mendez Newport Beach
