Letter to the Editor - by Sergio Barbosa

Dear Ms. Kathy English,


I am writing to you today with regards to the article written by the Toronto Star sports writer Cathal Kelly.

On his World cup article "Uruguay strikes another blow for South America" dated Saturday June 26, 2010 he makes a comparison between South Korea and Uruguay. On it he tells South Koreans not to feel bad for their loss to Uruguay because they have a powerhouse economy and the bright lights of Seoul compared to Uruguay who has "plane-crash-related cannibalism". As a Canadian born in Uruguay I could not believe that your newspaper allowed such a discriminatory and disgusting statement to be printed and distributed across Canada. The event that Mr. Kelly is referring to was Uruguay's biggest tragedy in recent history.

A plane crash in 1972 known as the Andes flight disaster, where 16 Uruguayan athletes survived with little food and no source of heat in extreme cold conditions for 72 days. Faced with starvation and radio news reports that the search for them had been abandoned, the survivors had to make life or death decisions.

Now, to claim that Uruguayans are cannibals is insulting, offensive and downright sickening. It would be unacceptable to refer to Iranians as terrorists, Germans as Nazi's or Sikhs as airplane bombers. So why is this any different? I feel that Mr.Kelly's sole intent was to ridicule and offend our silent but strong community. If his intention was not to insult he could have taken the time to do some research and discovered that

Uruguay is a modern country rich in history, culture and warm, highly educated people.

As an active member of Toronto's Uruguayan community I can inform you that the mentioned article has caused a justified uproar with our normally passive and law abiding people. Uruguayans strongly believe in the freedom of speech. Not too long ago thousands of Uruguayans fought and died for liberty and democracy, the same rights we cherish here in this great country. However, freedom of speech does not give anybody the right to discriminate and/or mislead. I request that a formal written apology be printed in the Toronto Star immediately and that Mr.Kelly be reprimanded for his actions.

I look forward to your reply and welcome the opportunity to speak with you in person. Please feel free to contact me anytime,

Yours truly,


Sergio Barboza

July 21, 2010 6:31 PM