‘A Scholarship Out of Barrio’

Re: “A Scholarship Out of the Barrio, a Ticket to Burn-Out,” by Richard Rodriguez, (Editorial Pages, July 26):

One person’s musings is another person’s mystery. It never ceases to amaze me how Rodriguez can offend Latinos like myself. Maybe it’s the way he presents his personal reflections--his “musings”--not just as representative, but as universal, to the Latino experience.

I, like Rodriguez, was one of the “fortunate few” minority students given the opportunity to attend college. Rodriguez resents the “minority” label; however he forgets that there was then and is now a dearth of minorities in post-secondary education. He more conveniently forgets that, not-so-long ago, he would have been denied admittance to college (no matter how creative his “musings”) for reasons of race and color alone.

Rodriguez is a success story in a melting-pot society that emphasizes assimilation and conformity. Unfortunately he is also its victim. In college he suffered from triple alienation: alienation from other Latino students, alienation from Anglo students (he was never really accepted) and, most regrettably, alienation from himself and his culture.

Those of us who took (and still take) pride in calling ourselves “minority” were vastly enriched by the college experience. The “community” to which we declared our “solidarity” continues to provide purpose and meaning to our lives. (Rodriguez finds purpose in his rhetoric and that is good.)

It is only natural that Rodriguez would object to being labeled a minority: He could never identify with that which he never understood.

DENNIS F. HERNANDEZ

Los Angeles