'Librotraficante' Caravan Set To Smuggle Books Back Into Arizona Following Ethnic Studies Ban

A caravan of cars, full of activists and writers will be heading soon from Houston, Texas, to Tucson, Arizona.

It's cargo: books that were allegedly banned from the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The event, called 'Librotraficante' --which translates from Spanish to 'BookTrafficker'-- is set to take place between March 12th-18th. Among the participants of the caravan will be some of the authors whose books were banned in Arizona, together with advocates concerned with preserving First Amendment rights of equal protection and freedom of speech, according to the event's website.

It sounds romantic--the ultimate anti-establishment literary movement, people fighting for their right to access intellectual material. It was a slew of controversial events surrounding ethnic-studies which prompted the convoy.

The 'Librotraficante' caravan is instigated by the alleged banning of books from Mexican-American Studies (MAS) programs by the Tuscon Unified School District (TUSD) earlier this month. Amid protests, these ethnic-studies programs were suspended after Arizona State Superintendent John Huppenthal ruled that the high school MAS courses were in direct violation to ARS 15-112, a segment of the controversial law Arizona HB 2281, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer in 2010, according to a TUSD press release.

ARS 15-112 focuses on "prohibited courses and classes; enforcement" and it states that a program in a school district or charter school in Arizona shall not:

• Promote the overthrow of the United States government.
• Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.
• Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
• Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.

Based on this criteria, TUSD suspended its MAS program onJanuary 10th. The reaction was immediate, and many TUSD students, 60% of which are of Mexican descent, fled the streets in protest.

But further controversy erupted after books from the Tucson High Magnet School--part of TUSD-- were removed from the MAS course while the class was in motion, in the presence of young students.

There is a debate over the semantics, and over who is to blame for the spectacle of books being taken out of the students hands.

Cara Rene, the Communication Director of TUSD, said in an email sent yesterday to The Huffington Post that "there is not book ban."

In a press release issued by the school it states that the "books were removed from classrooms because the curriculum has changed in accordance with the ruling from the state superintendent."

The confiscation of books only increased the uproar caused across the state by the law.

"This has been brewing for about a year," said Tony Diaz, founder of Nuestra Palabra, an organization that promotes Latino literature and leader of 'Librotraficantes', to the The Colorado Independent.

"The boiling point was actually canceling the classes and quantifying the books. What really offended us down to our soul - they took the books out of the classes in front of the kids and boxed them up, and that was such a cultural offense we felt we had to do something."

Some of the titles that were taken away from the class were:

• 'Critical Race Theory' by Richard Delgado
• '500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures' edited by Elizabeth Martinez
• 'Message to AZTLAN' by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales
• 'Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement' by Arturo Rosales
• 'Occupied America: A History of Chicanos' by Rodolfo Acuna
• 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' by Paulo Freire
• 'Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years' by Bill Bigelow

The list of banned books is extensive, and it includes important Latino authors and activists' books that are being banished from classrooms.

Nicolàs Kanellos, Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Studies at University of Houston and Director of Arte Público Press (APP), the largest publisher of contemporary U.S. Latino literature, labelled Corky Gonzales as one of the "most important civil rights leaders," . And, Professor Emeritus Rudy Acuña is a respected, well-known and distinguished historian of Latinos in the United States.

In response to the removal of these books, Diaz and other activists are now going to smuggle them back into the state.

"We have to be Librotraficantes," Diaz said. "We have to become outlaws again. We're going to take all the 'wet books' that are illegal in Arizona back across the border."

Banned authors who will participate in the 'Librotraficante' caravan include Sandra Cisneros, Guggenheim Fellow Dagoberto Gilb and best-selling author Luis Alberto Urrea.

According to 'Librotraficante's' website, the goal of the caravan is to raise awareness regarding Latino Studies being banned in Arizona, promote books of banned Latino authors and "celebrate many cultures: children of the American Dream must unite to preserve the civil rights of all Americans."

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Comments

[mrraymonds01]

10:27 AM on 05/14/2012

There should be NO culture taught in U.S. public schools but AMERICAN CULTURE. If you want to know Hispanic/ Irish/ Chinese/ Korean/ Polish cultures, fine. But do it on your own time/ dime. Schools should be teaching students how to be good citizens and productive citizens. E pluribus unum = out of many, one.

[starchildjg24]

11:18 AM on 05/17/2012

What is "American culture"???

[chaiborag]

11:42 AM on 05/17/2012

Multi culture is American culture. Everybody here came from somewhere else and it IS the role of education to teach and understand history. Even history you don't like!

[mrraymonds01]

04:31 PM on 05/17/2012

First, becoming American/American Culture meant that new arrivals saw themselves as individuals rather than as members of groups. President George Washington spoke to this when he noted that America was open to all but they should settle as individuals ready for “intermixture with our people” and “assimilated to our customs, measures, and laws: in a word, soon become our people.”

Second, becoming American meant that new arrivals saw themselves looking forward rather than looking backward. John Quincy Adams, our sixth President, said about immigrants that “they must look forward to their posterity rather than backward to their ancestors.” We all have cultural customs that are part of our make-up, part of our heritage but when we really become Americans, we take unto ourselves the celebration of American customs, the Fourth of July, President’s Day, Memorial Day, having one wife, joining voluntary associations to accomplish goals we find to be important, and saluting our flag, our American flag with the Pledge of Allegiance. And, these are just a few examples of which there are many more.

[mrraymonds01]

04:34 PM on 05/17/2012

Sorry, read below first.

Third, becoming American was seen as a matter of beliefs rather than birth and blood, a matter of heart and mind rather than race and ancestry. President Franklin Roosevelt said, “Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race and ancestry. A good American is one who is loyal to this country and to our creed of liberty and democracy.” And, Franklin Roosevelt was a Democrat so you see that Americanism is not partisan..

Fourth, becoming American was seen as transformative rather than preservative. This is what we mean when we talk about the melting pot…people from many nations, with different languages, different religious beliefs, different political backgrounds and different customs and cooking traditions…all coming together and making a new people. A new people that come together and form a new culture adopting English as their primary language, agreeing that the freedom to worship is right and worthy of defending, participating in a new representative form of government, and adopting new customs or making them. Indeed, agreeing to work and play side by side with others who may have come from the opposite side of the world. We are all Americans now…setting a course for the future together while honoring customs from our heritage.

That is from a speech. http://www.heritage.org/​about/speeches/​american-values-immigrants-​and-land-of-opportunity

american values immigrants and land of opportunity
www.heritage.org

[Bills Catz]

09:10 PM on 04/22/2012

AZ is truly a strange state, might be a legacy of all those nearby nuclear tests in the 50's. Or could be just a bunch of bored politicians looking for any kind of attention at all...

[chaiborag]

11:42 AM on 05/17/2012

got that right - they need to clean house and the gov's mansion.

[Laura Bo Baura]

01:10 PM on 04/19/2012

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-of-az-reverse-the-unlawful-ban-of-education-in-arizona

[alwaysthinkin]

03:42 PM on 03/01/2012

You know its funny how little politicians and would be lay-z-boy pundits know about education.

We live in a NCLB world in which ALL American children are supposed to be proficient in reading and math by 2014 (extended from the original deadline of 2012)
That means we have to close the achievement gap. According to the current trends in education the best way to combat the gap is through culturally responsive teaching. Simply, culturally responsive teaching is when teachers acknowledge students' cultural, ethnic, socio-economic, and familial identities (among others) and incorporate themes that recognize and honor the leaders of their cultures into their teaching. This increases motivation and validates their lives. This creates students who want to do well, thus gaining an education, and ultimately becoming contributing members of society. It's BASIC cultural pedagogy.
This kind of thinking maintains the status-quo for these students, thus creating those "gang-bangers" who strike such fear into your hearts. Give them something to look up to, and you will see success.

[Bills Catz]

09:25 PM on 04/22/2012

Sounds good. You don't think the US Gov't is really going to fund anything like that, do you? Unfortunately the 'dumbing down' of America began few decades ago -- right around the time industries started getting shipped away --and has gone downhill ever since. The mentality behind the throne seemed to be that there was no sense educating kids because there will be no jobs for them anyhow. Every time big budgets get pared down, education seems to be at the top of the list. Educated people are a threat to The Machine.

[chaiborag]

11:45 AM on 05/17/2012

Experience has taught us that as soon as it's banned it becomes more attractive... They just created a whole generation of activists! Take that Brewer!

[randyjet]

07:03 PM on 02/04/2012

I am astounded that the MAS folks are not ashamed of doing what they accuse some courses of doing, lying about history. Not only that, but they lie about so called smuggling books which is NOT what they are doing since they are perfectly free to do what they are doing. I am also outraged at the flippant use of this term since I personally recall reading books that we actually smuggled into the US. The Tropic of Cancer,. Stones, Hidden History of the Korean War among other books that actually were smuggled since doing so would result is jail time. Not to mention William Reichs works as well. People DID go to jail and prison for such a thing and to use this term for what these people are doing simply mocks their sacrifice and shows that they are simply playing at mock heroics.

That such people have so little respect for themselves or others does NOT speak well of their position. It is like some black students sitting at a lunch counter now and thinking that they are being "heroic" if they chant slogans there.

[MadasHellnAZ]

08:20 AM on 02/04/2012

I.think it's great that these children are interested in their background, but this is the wrong way of learning about it. Especially when they burned an American flag at one of their protests, beat a pinata that was of our "Sheriff", continually cut classes in protest, chain themselves to desks and disrupts the legal process with fear and threats.

[lorenzito]

09:32 AM on 02/04/2012

I think our "founder fathers" did worse, don't you think? The only forms of protest I will never agree with will be harming another human being, the burning of the flag and threats. With that said, please tell me how many American Indians we exterminated when they try to protest our taking what was theirs Isn't cutting classes, beating a Piñata, chaining ourselves to desks just silly protest actions compared to what we all did to our Native Americans? Just another silly question.

[Bills Catz]

09:27 PM on 04/22/2012

The Native Americans haven't gotten a break yet -- just got ripped off and shoved out of the way.

[Sabrina McNockHarris]

11:44 AM on 02/05/2012

like of like how the right wing made images of gorillas that morphed into Obama! Go USA!! those were okay to pass around and laugh at? He is our President! The "sherrif" isn't!

[MadasHellnAZ]

08:20 AM on 02/04/2012

All of Arizona is Not racist because we want All of American History to be taught in our public schools, white, black or blue. What was tusd suppose to do, lose millions of $'s in funding to keep a program that promoted exclusion, while further pushing racial divides? Why couldn't the Mexican kids just start a "club" like the Chess club or the other not for credit activies?.Why should one race get credit for learning about their heritage and not another. The way these kids took over the board meeting shows me that they are being taught radicalism. This just keeps promoting hate and distrust. Just like claiming the books are banned, it's more propaganda. Why continue to widen the divide but inflamming people of all colors. This does nothing to unite an already strained community. . We really do have enough problems wtihout whipping up more anger and resentment on both sides. And just because tusd is 60% latino, it dosen't mean that 1st and foremost were are not all Americans.Quite a bit of our history has been "White washed". and no matter what your race, it is offensive.The whole truth should be taught so that we may learn from our mistakes, not repeat history. What about the American Indians, or black soldiers who fought in the civil war who were not even free? I

[lorenzito]

09:15 AM on 02/04/2012

After reading your point of view, I agree with you for the most part...
We are all in this together. We are all part of the American History (American Indians, black soldiers, Latino soldiers, etc.) and we all have a valid point to make when claiming our contributions to this country. But if we (meaning each cultural groups) stop fighting for what we feel is justice then one day we'll stop calling this land "America the Beautiful" or the "Greatest Democracy" in the world!!!!

[randyjet]

10:19 AM on 02/05/2012

It is one thing to demand ones rightful place in our history, and quite another to denigrate and demonize another entire race as was being done in the MAS course. Think that we should in our history courses demand that the white race be exalted over all others? That we should have Mein Kampf as part of the curriculum? Or the Turner Diaries as part of English Lit?

In my long past school days in history in HS, we learned all about the acquisition of the Southwest and that it was part of Mexico. We also learned about the Spanish and French exploration of a good part of the US. I was taught about Cartier, De Soto, and others. In Texas history we learned about the Spanish explorers and how the Spanish settled much of the southwest. They were in no way shorted in the history.

We did not learn much Mexican history except as it pertained to US history, and I can bet that the MAS courses NEVER mentioned the contribution the US made to Mexican independence and freedom either. THAT is why the MAS course was cancelled since it was more propoganda than history or reational thinking.

[Bills Catz]

09:45 PM on 04/22/2012

"White-washed" is definitely a good term for the history books that were handed out in my school back in the day after WWII. LOL. The inventor of peanut butter -- George Washington Carver -- was the only Black guy to get honorable mention. Native Americans were savages who randomly attacked White settlers for no reason -- no, sorry, no Black settlers according to the book. South Americans were quaint people who wore sombreros, wove blankets and enjoyed living in thatched huts. Africans were head-hunters and barbarians. Everybody from Eastern Europe was probably a Commie. And all Asians were the equivalent of Kamikase Killers. We even had a local folk song that was sung in class while the teachers smiled...

(To the tune of Glory, Glory, Hallelujah)
A mushroom cloud is rising over Nagasaki Bay!
100,000 people will be burnt to death today!

Swell, huh? That's the mentality were were spoon-fed in the early sixties...

[mrraymonds01]

10:39 AM on 05/14/2012

If the Japanese didn't attack the US, the bomb never would have been used.

[lorenzito]

08:17 PM on 02/03/2012

Isn't American History the History of Immigration? if there is anyone out here who can answer "No!" to this silly question, just ask yourself this silly question, "Before I or any of my relatives came to exist, who were the true owners of this beautiful land now called the United States of America?"
You know what...
That's a silly question we might don't want to ask ourselves,
for that way we can keep our children from discovering the only truth about what we all call "American History!"

[Bills Catz]

09:52 PM on 04/22/2012

Originally the country was ALL immigrants -- the only actual Americans were Sioux, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Utes, Blackfoot and Cree -- along with a half-dozen other tribes. Only a hundred years ago there were still battles with the so-called 'Indians.' Taking a country away from folks ain't anything fair or nice, doesn't matter what flag it happens under. Will there ever be a true American history book?

[mrraymonds01]

10:46 AM on 05/14/2012

It happened all thru-out world history. They were people of their time. Good thing our sensibilities have changed. But we should be taught one American Culture.

[Kaitlyn Archuleta]

03:57 PM on 02/03/2012

It is entirely unconstitutional when people are not given the right to learn or have the freedom to say what they wish. As a student going into teaching, I have developed a strong feeling that people are becoming more and more oppressed in the intelligence department, because a country that is a dictatorship --NOT a democracy-- doesnt want their people to be critical thinkers. Arizona is the state I could see this atrocity happening in, but it ACTUALLY occurring and the law ACTUALLY being passed is appalling. Every group is an "Ethnic" group. You take out racism, you take out American history.

[Bills Catz]

10:00 PM on 04/22/2012

Kaitlyn, very valid point. Uneducated masses just follow along while educated people question the Power Blocs. In almost every evolving dictatorship, the educated are the first to be banished or killed. In recent decades the US mentality seems to have switched to don't-educate-them-to-begin-with, similar to the established dictatorships.

America is my home and I still try to believe there some common good in mind somewhere, but this definitely isn't the country we were taught about back in grade school. LOL

[mrraymonds01]

10:49 AM on 05/14/2012

It is NOT a democracy. It is a REPUBLIC. A political system with elected representatives: a political system or form of government in which people elect representatives to exercise power for them

[Jerry Bourbon]

03:02 PM on 02/03/2012

WOW! This is so BOLD!!! They are going to do something that is totally legal and safe. What a concept.

[Sabrina McNockHarris]

02:45 AM on 02/05/2012

WOW, how bold! Timothy McVeigh is an American! Are you a fan of his?

[Jerry Bourbon]

11:44 AM on 02/05/2012

No. Are you? What is your point?

[mrraymonds01]

11:21 AM on 05/14/2012

What a stupid question.

[MJinCanada]

11:37 AM on 02/03/2012

But if they take all the Hispanic and black content out of a course, then it is specifically geared to whites and in violation of their own law, right?

[rubbercow]

07:24 PM on 02/03/2012

I guess news is a bit scarce up there. No, despite the best efforts to make all "black" people the same, all "Hispanics" the same and all "whites" the same the fact remains that each of these ridiculous groupings is comprised of very divergent ethnic groups.

You could teach all day about "Hispanics" and not teach a single thing about Mexico. Of course, that is not what I am advocating for, but this class was focused on the Mexican claim that the US "stole" its land and was specifically geared towards creating resentment between the Mexican-American students and their "white" oppressors.

[MJinCanada]

12:22 AM on 02/05/2012

I realize that there are different cultural groups.

And I must ask you -- is what the class was focused on true?

'Cause, not to burst your bubble, but up here kids are now taking a social studies class on how the European Canadians ripped off the First Nations by breaking treaty promises, and clarifying a lot of misconceptions about what native Canadians are actually entitled to, what they get, and what freebies people believe they get but don't actually exist.

Will this create resentment? Not really. First Nations kids and white kids and new immigrant kids all find a lot of the detail boring. On the other hand, it's likely to reduce some of the redneck stupidity as this generation grows up knowing the facts.

[TheFabOne]

11:10 AM on 02/03/2012

Between books and drugs, you can smuggle just about anything through Arizona.

Never seen anyone on a 7-day cocaine binge discussing the literary prognostications of "War And Peace".

[Sabrina McNockHarris]

12:09 AM on 02/05/2012

Never thought we would have a muslim president either. but oh well

[edwena1]

03:00 PM on 02/21/2012

Just because his name is Barack, doesn't mean he's Muslim. Just because a woman's name is Yvette definitely doesn't make her French!

[TheNextVoiceofYouth]

11:02 AM on 02/03/2012

People think that banning the books won't promote the last three things listed in the ARS-15 1112? How backwards are they? Glad for the Latino activists.

[Jerry Bourbon]

03:17 PM on 02/03/2012

Please cite one example of any book that is banned and unavailable for sale in Arizona.

[new 10 ole ole]

03:22 PM on 02/05/2012

Thank Goodness, you got it!

[Kambriel2]

07:29 PM on 02/02/2012

vivan los librotrafi­cantes!!