‘Sharing the Blame’

Your editorial pinpoints very lucidly the essence of the problems in Central America. But I think that you should go beyond Congress and admit that the forces that are propelling the United States toward disaster in this part of the world are buried in this nation’s collective subconscious.

Ever since Elizabeth I was courted by Phillip II the Spanish-speaking and the English-speaking worlds have eyed each other suspiciously. The European conflict between Spain and England was transferred to the New World, where these two countries struggled with each other over the resources and peoples of the new continent.

Two civilizations were created, as different one from the other as day is from night. England prevailed at the end and gave birth to a nation that God blessed beyond all measures, both in the immensity of its natural resources and in the supreme level of wisdom of her Founding Fathers in the art of government.

The vestiges of Spain were not so fortunate. Not only were they cursed by the legacy of authoritarian thought of imperial Spain but also by the continuous level of prejudice and misunderstanding that would mark their relations with the vigorous and arrogant republic to the north.

I am not surprised at the events unfolding before my eyes. The sadness that overwhelms me at the moment I write these lines is based on the knowledge that this tragedy could be prevented: Unlike the actors in the Greek dramas of antiquity, we in the West believe in the capacity of the human spirit to determine and choose the course of its destiny.

Oh reason, where is your light?

RAMON OCEGUERA

San Diego