To the editors:

We could not agree more with the opinion piece written by Martha Casillas, Edward Rocha and Maribel Hernandez in response to the publicized excerpts from the upcoming work by Weatherhead University Professor Samuel P. Huntington on the impact of Hispanic immigration in this country (Op-Ed, “The Hispanic Contribution,” March 18).

We are your lawyers, your investment bankers, your elected representatives, your professors, your judges. Latinos and Latinas are prominent and successful in medicine, business, academics, entertainment, science and sports. Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Americans and many others defend our way of life and the principles we all cherish by their generous service in the United States Armed Forces. In addition, many recent immigrants from south of the border work the jobs you don’t want, often several jobs at a time and care for their families in their struggle to conquer the American dream. And many, many succeed.

We bring with us our faith, our love of family, our commitment to friendship and yes, our ambition. We hold the same values of tolerance, democracy, liberty and respect for civic duty as the descendants of the Irish, German, Polish, Jewish, Asian and African immigrants who arrived on these shores before us. And to those who need to remember, our ancestors lived on these lands before the Mayflower set sail, and they founded the first city on U.S. soil, decades before Jamestown.

To the often-used question, “Jose, can you see?” we answer: yes, we can see a United States where the diversity of other cultures and languages continues to enrich all of us and to make this country great.

JOSE C. FLOREZ

LUCIA SOBRIN

March 18, 2004

The writers are resident tutors in Winthrop House.