To the Editor:

Re “Why Are Cubans So Special?” (Op-Ed, Jan. 30):

Your decision to allow an Op-Ed writer to openly mock a person’s ethnicity — as Ann Louise Bardach did when she wrote that Senator Ted Cruz “has been called as Hispanic ‘as Tom Cruise’ ” — is saddening.

She was using the comment to bludgeon Mr. Cruz’s principled policy positions regarding United States-Cuba relations, suggesting that, if he disagrees with her, Mr. Cruz is not truly Cuban — despite his father’s having been imprisoned and tortured in Cuba, and coming to America penniless.

An Op-Ed writer is not the arbiter of a person’s race or ethnicity, and it is unfortunate that The New York Times would allow someone a platform to pretend so.

AMANDA CARPENTER

Communications Director

Office of Senator Ted Cruz

Washington