L.A. UNIFIED

The glimpse into “Our Family Album” (by Carla Rivera, July 14) was a wonderful history lesson. Being a proud native of Southern California, I always find it interesting to learn about its rich cultural history. The photographs are proof that people from every walk of life can live among each other without hatred, fear or violence. Maybe there is hope for our city yet.

Frances Terrell Lippman

Los Angeles

*

I was pleasantly surprised, and became quite nostalgic, to see a picture of the Kuromi children from 1920 in your article on the family photo albums. In the ‘40s, when we lived in the Los Feliz area, Isamu Kuromi leased an automotive repair garage from my husband. My husband passed away 45 years ago, my life has changed many times, but my son Jim, who was 4 years old at the time, and I still remember his dad’s friend “Ise.” The article brought back many fond memories of a time when it was great to live in, and be a part of, Los Angeles.

Margaret McGill Volchok

Westlake Village

*

Your pictorial history of Southern California embraced the true essence and flavor of the Southland better than anything written could have. Also, I learned some things. That there were segregated beaches in the L.A. area well into the 1930s, and that there were organizations as early as the 1920s that helped immigrants settle in Southern California.

I particularly liked the 1923 Boyle Heights photo of members of the International Institute in Fourth of July dress. Now that was a patriotic group.

Kenneth Zimmerman

Huntington Beach

*

It gave me chills to see how my life growing up in the San Fernando Valley was not so different from the people in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Hollywood.

Joanne Cunha

Venice

German, French, Scandinavian and other European immigrants also had a “dream” when they arrived in Los Angeles and started from scratch. But they are usually neglected in the press. It would be enjoyable to read their opinions of the United States.

Linne Midland

Canoga Park

*

The train station in the background of the photograph of Southern Pacific waiters Charles McKinney and Frank Carter is the old Southern Pacific Central Station at 5th Street and Central Avenue, not Union Station. Southern Pacific used this station until 1939, when Union Station was opened.

Robert P. Lawrence

Redondo Beach

*

You cannot imagine how surprised I was when my daughter showed me the family album article. There was my best friend’s cousin, Diane Ali, with her charming husband, Khalil, and their daughter Melanie. The entire article made me yearn for more.

Eileen O’Neill

West Hills