Sounding Off:

Years ago, while attending Orange Coast College, my social science professor walked into my Speech 100 class, holding five large pictures. They weren’t Picasso’s or Frida Kahlo’s world-famous replicas, but rather a few anonymous conventional pieces that one could find hanging on the walls of a nearby restaurant.

She showed each picture to the class and asked us to identify them. Our topic for that week was “On Perspectives.”

We all reached consensus on three pictures. While the fourth picture, an abstract of rectangular figures, was tricky, the fifth picture was odd. All of us felt it was a pillow, except one student.

He asked the professor to turn the picture upside down, and suggested that the class look at it again carefully.

He said: “It is a Muslim woman wearing a face veil.” We all were shocked, including my professor. I saw some people’s jaws dropped in amazement.

However, my professor explained to the class: “This exercise isn’t about being right or wrong. It’s about perspectives. We will learn about issues, and how those issues mean differently to different people due to their philosophical views, culture, religion, social background, etc.”

A while ago, former Daily Pilot Editor Brady Rhoades brought back memories of my speech class. He stated in his blog that a woman confronted him at a social event and complained that the Pilot was running one-sided opinion pages through its white-male-dominated columnists.

Because Costa Mesa is a socially and ethnically diverse community, in which perhaps more than half of the population are women and a similar percentage are ethnic minorities, particularly Latinos, this woman believed that a different opinion must be allowed in the newspaper.

After all, the Daily Pilot is a community newspaper. Despite being a private entity, it owes well-balanced news and opinion pieces to the people.

I felt encouraged when Jamie Rowe was appointed as a columnist, as she is articulate, lucid and brings a woman’s perspective.

However, I was deeply moved when Rhoades promised to hire a columnist specializing in Latino issues. I thought it was a plausible decision. As we know, more than 30% of the population has Latino ancestry. Our food, culture and traditions thrive in the city, and unfortunately there is nobody to expose our stories in the community.

Our opinion is lost in our own neighborhoods. It would be interesting to find out, for instance, how some Latinos feel on such issues as the Orange County Fairgrounds, education, crime, health care, etc.

Catering to Latino readers also makes sense from an economic standpoint. Unlike other ethnic groups, Latinos continue to rely on printed newspapers and magazines to get advertisements and news.

It’s been more than 15 years since I took that Speech 100 class. My professor’s message continues to be more valid than ever. It doesn’t hurt anybody to bring another person’s perspective to the table. It’s healthy and constructive.

HUMBERTO CASPA, a contributing writer at La Opinión, lives in Costa Mesa.