The New York Times is apologizing for offending Latinos on Monday. The headline was "Readers Call a Travel Story on Los Angeles Dismissive of Latino Culture. They Have a Point." Lynda Richardson and Steve Reddicliffe, editors on the paper's Travel desk, wrote contritely:
Our Travel cover feature about retreats and sanctuaries in and around Los Angeles has received numerous complaints from readers who found the piece dismissive of Latino culture and clichéd in its portrayal of the city. We want to assure readers that was absolutely not our intention.
Readers took issue with the reference to a historic street in Downtown Los Angeles that sells Jesus statuettes and piñatas as the source of “all useless items in the world.” We now see how it came across as offensive. We appreciate the feedback and know that we can do better.
We have long recognized that Latino culture, and Mexican-American culture in particular, in many ways defines the identity of Los Angeles.
Here is the actual passage in a long, writerly exploration of the City of Angels (the bold line is now scrubbed):
I emerged from the cavernous, Art Deco masterpiece of Union Station into a strange neighborhood where each shop seemed to be peddling only one thing: the shop selling Jesus statuettes was next to the shop selling giant stuffed bears was next to the shop selling soccer uniforms for babies was next to the shop selling piñatas. It soon became clear to me that these three blocks were the source of all useless items in the world.
The Times also quoted the writer of this opus, novelist Reif Larsen, offering an apology: “I should have taken my own advice in the article and realized that places and objects of sanctuary, retreat and reverence can take on all forms,” he said. “I travel to learn about new cultures, experiences and ways of seeing the world, and my learning continues here.” He also tweeted he grappled poorly with "the tension between the singular spiritual experience & the mass commodification of the spiritual, whether in the form of 1000s of religious statuettes made in China or tourists bathing their chakras."
Larsen unspooled a bunch of snobbery, like his hot take on traffic versus walking: "As you walk, the city becomes a distant dream, a movie half-remembered. In a way, it is bit like the festina lente [make haste slowly] of Interstate 10, but without the cars, the smog, the man in the neon-yellow Dodge Charger listening to Whitesnake’s 'Here I Go Again' at peak volume. One way in, one way out."
