Over-Breeding Causes Social Anguish

Fred Alvarez’s report on the Colonia area of Oxnard was an appropriate macabre tale for Halloween (“Barrio Life Going from Bad to Worse,” Nov. 1).

The barrio tale, here and throughout Latin America, hides reality behind make-believe. The reality that dogs us all is the religious superstition which makes over-breeding a glory, hence never to be criticized. Until human over-breeding is defined, accepted as fact by public recognition, and efforts in family planning find some success, the social anguish and deprivation which identify the so-called barrios will always be with us.

EDWARD SHUCK

Thousand Oaks