Nick Lacobelle's letter to the New Haven Register on May 7 needs a response. The writer's remarks about Mexicans and other minorities were sad reminders of the racist attitudes that victimized previous immigrants to America.
In the early 1920s large numbers of the immigrants flooding our shores were widely considered to be of "inferior stock." The Irish, Catholics, Jews and Italians were especially singled out as unskilled, ignorant and not easily assimilated into American culture. These concerns led to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, which gave preference to Northern European immigrants, and set quotas for immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. After this law was passed, the numbers of Italians entering our country dropped from an annual 200,000 to less than 4,000. Although these restrictions were eased in later years, Nick Lacobelle's letter is testimony that racist attitudes persist, continuing to denigrate minority groups.
Muriel M. Diaz
Wallingford