Quality of Life Fades in Overcrowded California

Re Steve Lopez’s April 28 column, “Progress Overtakes Movie, or Does It?” In it, he describes the film “A Day Without a Mexican,” which paints a bleak picture of existence in Los Angeles without Mexicans. Life as we know it, the film claims, would come to a standstill.

It seems to me, however, that life as we know it has already come to a standstill. Our freeways are jammed, our schools have deteriorated, our hospitals are overwhelmed. Nobody wants “a day without Mexicans.” They are an important part of our California culture, but the flood of illegals now coming over the border is not enhancing the quality of life but destroying it.

Please don’t give me the argument that we’ll all pay more for our fruits and vegetables without their cheap labor. Overcrowding is making us pay for those fruits and vegetables a dozen times over in other ways. Our immigration laws were not created to discriminate against Mexicans but to afford every new immigrant, whatever his or her origin, a decent chance at a better life. Not enforcing those laws hurts us all.

Jean Sapin

Sherman Oaks

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This 45-year-old gringo (and many Mexicans, both legal and illegal) would swap the California of the 1960s with present day “Alta” California. Somehow, all those nasty jobs were accomplished in the Golden State (with the exception of certain fruit harvests), and with only a fraction of the Mexican population California now possesses.

If Mexicans don’t like living in Mexico, how can you expect anyone else to? California is just now hitting its Third World stride, but my wife and I will not be around to see it. We will miss the sun, but if we become homesick we can always rent “Blade Runner.”

Doug Hammond

Long Beach