NATIVE UPRISING

Courageously, the editors let a guy named Bob Baker sing the lament of the California-born (“Us Against Them,” Guest Bites Town, April 12). We natives best understand the ethnic diversity that has long been at the area’s core. It is we who have a sense of the place: Pico Rivera with fascinating horned lizards, predating the condos. The misty, mystic shoals adjacent to Ballona Creek, there long before the unflattering gold chains of Marina del Rey. The extranjeros who came here to see Goofy or be goofy. It is for us to remind others of the late Edward Abbey’s words: “There are two kinds of poisonous lizards out West: Gila monsters and real estate speculators.”

Keep the soul alive with such humor and citric acid, Bob Baker.

GEORGE R. CARTTER

Nipomo