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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMeet the Librotraficantes— Underground Library Counters Arizona’s Ban on Ethnic-Studies Courses
Book Smugglers protesting the states controversial ban on ethnic-studies classesand putting Mexican-American works in students handsSome 30 students, teachers, and activists emerged from the bus carrying boxes of books. As they stepped onto the pavement Saturday and into the bright Tucson sun, they chanted in unison, What do we want? Books! When do we want them? Now! Who are we? Librostraficantes!
The Spanish term, which means book smugglers, is the brainchild of Houston Community College professor and author Tony Diaz, who with a few dozen supporters set out March 12 for Arizona to protest a 2010 state law that prohibits certain types of ethnic studies in public schools. In January officials shut down the Tucson Unified School Districts Mexican-American-studies curriculum. The Librotraficante Caravan traveled through Texas and New Mexico, stopping in cities along the way to hold literary readings, collect donated books, and establish underground libraries filled with titles from Tucsons banned courses. Several authors whose works were discontinued participatedRudolfo Anaya, widely considered the godfather of Latino literature in the Southwest, even invited the caravan into his Albuquerque home for posole, traditional pork stew.
Im much obliged to the Tucson Unified School District for creating this little book club, Diaz said after arriving at a youth center that will be the site of Tucsons underground library, home to copies of some 80 books taught in the now-defunct program, including The House on Mango Street by bestselling author Sandra Cisneros, Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, and The Devils Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea. When Arizona legislators decided to erase our history, we decided to make more!
. . . The law originated amid Arizonas heated debates over the immigration crackdown spearheaded by Republican legislators, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Gov. Jan Brewer. The governor signed the ethnic-studies measure in May 2010, just weeks after signing into law the countrys toughest immigration bill in generations. (That measure, S.B. 1070, is heading to the Supreme Court in April.) Soon after, officials declared the Tucson program illegal, and a group of teachers sued the state in federal court. In January an administrative judge approved the courses elimination, and the classes books were boxed up and taken to storage facilities and school libraries. A district-court judge is scheduled to hear motions in the case today . . .
read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/19/arizona-ethnic-studies-ban-s-unintended-result-underground-libraries.html
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Meet the Librotraficantes— Underground Library Counters Arizona’s Ban on Ethnic-Studies Courses (Original Post)
bigtree
Mar 2012
OP