‘Lopez’ Versus Reality

I wonder what comedy-writing school Vic Cabrera attended (“‘Lopez’ Family Dynamics Not True to Life,” April 15). Or perhaps his put-down of “The George Lopez Show” was slanted not by what he calls poor comedy writing but more likely because he was relegated by his wife to watching the new comedy on his small TV set in the kitchen.

Out here in viewerland, my friends, family and neighbors are quite delighted with the series. We think it is funny, refreshing and a welcome change from the reruns of a dozen sitcoms we’re faced with each evening. We laugh a lot.

VIRGINIA MIESSNER

Granada Hills

*

The characters on “The George Lopez Show” are not honest to Cabrera because, maybe, he doesn’t know anyone like that. I sure do.

I’m a 30-years-young Latino father with an 11-year-old daughter whom I want to know everything about. The channels of communication are always open on my side. My daughter might choose not to tell me some things, but I am there to listen to anything she has to share. Especially if sharing with me is going to make her feel better. My father was definitely not like that, but we live in a different time now. “Where’s her mother?” is not the solution.

Cabrera generalizes too much and assumes that all Latino families are like his. Wrong. There are real people like everyone on that show.

RAFAEL CARDENAS

Los Angeles

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Some may see “Resurrection Boulevard,” “American Family” and “The George Lopez Show” as groundbreaking, but it annoys me as a young Latino to see stories revolve around East L.A., gangs, families sitting down eating rice and beans, and everyone speaking with an accent.

Latino culture is diverse. We don’t all come from East L.A., we are not all in gangs, we eat things besides rice and beans and we all don’t speak with accents. It disturbs me that stereotypical roles continue to be broadcast the same way they were when I was growing up.

DAVID G. VILLANUEVA

Whittier

*

Latinos are as diverse as any other loosely defined ethnic group on Earth. But whereas white people accept their diversity and understand that the white characters they see on TV do not necessarily represent them or their entire race, minorities often labor under the assumption that if the minority characters they see on TV aren’t exactly like them, then something’s wrong.

This was what sank “All American Girl” (ABC’s noble attempt to produce the first Asian American sitcom). Let us hope that Latino activists don’t make the mistake that Asian American activists did when they drove that show off the air because of its “unrealistic” portrayal of an Asian American family.

If minorities really want to see more nonwhite characters on TV, we must do as we ask white people to do, and “celebrate diversity”--not just the diversity of our society as a whole, but also the diversity that occurs within our own racial or ethnic groups.

DIONICIO TORRES

Los Angeles