Inspired by Gigantes
Kristi Martinez ’97 and I, both SCU grads, are teaching at Los Altos High School and were inspired by the cover of the Spring 2006 magazine. Our students created a display for our school to celebrate Day of the Dead.
I recently brought Hector Vega to speak with my Spanish for Spanish Speaker students and the ELD students at the school. He was truly an inspiration and motivated so many students with his story of perseverance.
Diana Navarro Bushnell ’01
Los Altos, Calif.
A life-saving gift
I was pleased to read Steven Boyd Saum’s article regarding John Sobrato’s kidney transplant [Winter 2006 SCM]. Having had a heart transplant in September 2003, I can well identify with the pre- and post-transplant effects on his life. My hope is that his article touches others and causes them to sign up as organ and tissue donors.
As the article pointed out, there are a great number of people, approximately 94,000, waiting for various organ transplants. Anyone can sign up online at www.donatelifecalifornia.org. Thanks for taking the time to cover such a life-saving gift.
Tom Inks ’63
Sacramento, Calif.
ALS–the orphan disease
Thank you for the profile of Roy Mytinger and his fight against ALS. This is often called the “orphan disease”. Long ago Lou Gehrig had the disease, but, unless one is a baseball fan, most young people do not know about this devastating disease.
On behalf of my family, I thank you for making ALS known to more people. My son, Mark Bader, age 52, died of ALS a year ago last May. He only attended SCU for a few years, but his sister Linda ’74, brother Matt ’76, and sister Teresa ’78 did graduate from SCU.
Mary Terry Bader
Santa Clara, Calif.
A brief history of “illegal”
William C. Miller condemns use of “undocumented” instead of “illegal” [in letters, Winter 2006 SCM], referring to Mexican immigration to be stopped “to protect civil society.”
In A Different Mirror, Ronald Takaki presents the coin’s other side in the 1840s: “So began the revolt to wrest California from Mexico….American westward expansion was reaching the Pacific, and Americans were entering California. The rebels were mostly uncouth frontiersmen…. [Some] had crossed the border after the Mexican government had prohibited American immigration, and hence were illegal aliens. Most of the intruders had been in California for less than a year, and now they were claiming the territory as theirs.”
How would Mr. Miller judge this American immigration into Mexican California?
Mexican immigration, legal or not, certainly is not subverting the governance of the U.S. If any law is broken by some migrants in their search for work, that very same law is also transgressed by all U.S. employers who hire these people. However, the latter are practically exempt from application of the law. Only Mexicans are bashed.
We should be more tolerant, especially when we enjoy labor and territory ill-obtained from the ancestors of this people.
Guillermo Anchondo ’56
Coronado, Calif.
Corrections
Page 25 of the Winter 2006 SCM incorrectly stated the name of John M. Sobrato’s son now enrolled at SCU. John Sobrato graduated from Bellarmine Prep and enrolled as a freshman at SCU in 2006.