The author questions the applicability of a value-system-contrast approach to intercultural communication. His two main reservations involve the deprivation and validity of value sets themselves and the potential dangers encounterable in using values as a guide to intercultural communication. Firstly, the non-scientific methods employed in compiling and categorizing value systems themselves, and the difficulty of determining the cause of particular values that are also constantly changing, contribute to the questionable validity of value systems which are externally and/or politically derived. Secondly, reliance on preconceived value sets as intercultural communication variables or guides may result in desensitization of the communicator who uses them and creation of an environment for self-fulfilling prophecy based on false interpretation. The author examines value set categorizations of Mexican-Americans in light of value system theory and intercultural communication. (Author/LG)