Multiculturalism

Regarding your series of articles on multiculturalism in the arts (June 2 and 9):

Multiculturalism is not an issue that affects only universities and the arts community. As an Anglo teacher at a public high school in East Los Angeles, I often feel on the front lines of this debate.

I recently asked my 11th-grade composition students to rank the most important areas in which they wished to be “educated” before leaving high school. At the top of the list for most of them was “a knowledge of the world community and our place in it.”

With these same students I later read an article on American ethnocentricity by a Latino writer, a selection of the short, fictional works of Sandra Cisneros and excerpts from the Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes’ “The Death of Artemio Cruz.” For once I saw little of the incomprehension and boredom with which our secondary school students often greet literature. Instead, I saw curiosity and involvement, and I got essays that did more than regurgitate my own statements.

And yet I personally had to bring in the literature that I used. Our textbook collection contains little Latino literature. Despite the fact that 98% of my school’s students are Latino, we do little to examine or exalt the rich Latino cultural tradition.

Multiculturalism is a fact. The only matter for debate is whether our educational and political institutions are prepared to respond to that fact, or wish to continue to grasp an outmoded world view. We have a heritage that encompasses the globe, and it is about time we claimed it.

VALERIE ZELNICK

Los Angeles