Re: your May 24 article, “Downtown benches bring tension”:

This article was very successful in portraying the endemic racism that plagues Santa Paula.

This racism stems from an elitist faction of this city that has wanted to get rid of the unsightly Mexicans for years.

Despite all their efforts, they have been unable to legally achieve that desired change, which is why they have to recur to various feeble methods such as the one outlined in your article.

Santa Paula has always been a city fighting against itself, which has made it unable to achieve a desirable level of economic development.

If Santa Paula really wants to develop, it needs to provide a synthesis of both Hispanic and American cultural values that are reflected in the city’s commerce and infrastructure. This is necessary because both of these cultures have been an integral part of this city since its founding. If the city cannot do this, it will be relegated to suffer the same problems that have stunted its growth for decades.

Though racism isn’t the only problem we have to overcome, it is a problem in which the fate of this city rests. Hopefully those in the community, merchants and our elected officials, will realize this before it is too late.

— Andrew J. Gonzalez, Santa Paula