Luis Alfaro

Thank you for your front-page coverage of Luis Alfaro’s triumphant achievement as a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation grant (June 17). As one of the thousands of people who have been touched by his genius as an artist and a person, I congratulate the foundation on its selection of Luis for this award.

I have followed his career from the earliest days, when it could not be called a career but was keenly visible as a passion. Stashed in a drawer are pages of writing Luis has shared with me, from a comical meeting announcement for office staff members who had been excluded from the previous day’s “high level” meeting (anyone making over $15,000 per year not welcome) to a tattered first draft of his play, “Bitter Homes and Gardens.” My bathroom companion is a copy of “Blood Whispers: L.A. Writers on AIDS” (1991), with an excerpt from Luis’ “Downtown.”

His writing captures the depths and heights of the city of Los Angeles and its sometimes bizarre humanity with humor and pathos. Eschewing easy comforts in his commitment to truth and his desire to open the world of the arts to every part of the community, Luis Alfaro demonstrates to all of us what can be accomplished when creative genius is joined by a generosity of spirit.

BETTY ANN HONDA

Glendale