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Letters

SACRED HEART COVERAGE EARNS KUDOS

Kudos, on your September LPM 2006 article, Saving our Sacred Heart (Charles Sanderson). As a former childhood resident of the Golden Gate Barrio, and member of Sacred Heart Church, I am pleased to see that the fight is still on to preserve the church. Yes, the city of Phoenix does have a responsibility to its Mexican-American community to preserve it and the site it sits.

The barrio surrounding it, although now gone, was a historic Phoenix community in its own right, lost to the powers and greed of local government. It is the last remnant of that once existing community. Closely linked were such initial enterprises such as Clyde B. Smith's first Smitty's Big Town, and the Food City store which served and catered to the surrounding areas, including Golden Gate.

Regretfully, the city of Phoenix did acquire and raze the Golden Gate barrio under suspicious and controversial tactics and methods, essentially displacing a whole historic and rich Mexican-American community.

In retrospect, the least the city could do is recognize this particular church's historical and religious significance to its Mexican American constituents, and save . the site, as an official apology and extend its hand in the spirit of reconciliation with the community. After all, the state of Georgia formally apologized to Ray Charles for its past dealings with him. Why can't Phoenix do the same, and allow the healing of that unfortunate period in Phoenix's history with its Mexican-American community to truly begin?

Robert D. Villescas, Sr.
Phoenix