Oswaldo Guayasamin

Ecuadorean artist Oswaldo Guayasamin began his ascent toward world renown thanks to Nelson Rockefeller and the State Department, but he has no friends these days in the U.S. Embassy. Although French President Francois Mitterrand visited his home last month, and Mitterrand's wife is a regular house guest, some Americans denounce him as a leftist ingrate guilty of a perfidious insult to the United States.

Re James F. Smith's "The Painter and the Yanquis," Nov. 29: Smith writes, " . . . some Americans denounce (artist Oswaldo Guayasamin) as a leftist ingrate guilty of perfidious insult to the United States." This is in reference to a Nazi helmet with the letters "CIA" emblazoned on it which appears in Guayasamin's mural in Ecuador's Congress. If Americans such as U.S. Ambassador Richard Holwill find Guayasamin's mural offensive to the point of demanding that President of Congress Wilfrido Lucero climb a ladder in order to paint over the letters, then I suggest that this is a typically insidious case of Yanqui arrogance approaching Khomeini-style intolerance.

Re James F. Smith's "The Painter and the Yanquis," Nov. 29: Smith writes, " . . . some Americans denounce (artist Oswaldo Guayasamin) as a leftist ingrate guilty of perfidious insult to the United States." This is in reference to a Nazi helmet with the letters "CIA" emblazoned on it which appears in Guayasamin's mural in Ecuador's Congress. If Americans such as U.S. Ambassador Richard Holwill find Guayasamin's mural offensive to the point of demanding that President of Congress Wilfrido Lucero climb a ladder in order to paint over the letters, then I suggest that this is a typically insidious case of Yanqui arrogance approaching Khomeini-style intolerance.

Ecuadorean artist Oswaldo Guayasamin began his ascent toward world renown thanks to Nelson Rockefeller and the State Department, but he has no friends these days in the U.S. Embassy. Although French President Francois Mitterrand visited his home last month, and Mitterrand's wife is a regular house guest, some Americans denounce him as a leftist ingrate guilty of a perfidious insult to the United States.