Aurora Levins Morales
To Former Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, Arizona State Superintendant of Public Instruction, John Huppenthal, and the Tucson Unified School District
I am writing to protest discriminatory actions on your part that amount to defamation of my character and that of my mother, Rosario Morales, as Latina writers: You have not placed a single one of our books on your list of titles to be banned from the public school curriculum!
It’s true that we are Puerto Rican, not Mexican, but you banned our compatriot Martin Espada. I am not from any of the First Nations of Arizona, and it’s also true that the Tainos have never lived in Arizona in large numbers, (though you did bring a bunch of us in the 1920s to pick cotton,) but you banned Sherman Alexie who is from the Pacific Northwest.
You banned Ron Takaki, Howard Zinn, Henry David Thoreau, and Mumia Abu Jamal, none of them Mexican or Native American. I have dedicated my life to the promotion of solidarity, to telling the stories of the oppressed, and cultivating our resistance. I have written history rooted in the knowledge and perspectives of my Indigenous and African ancestors, which are not based on Greco-Roman knowledge and therefore, according to your definitions, lie outside the bounds of Western Civilization and should not be taught.
Like Howard Zinn and Ron Takaki, I am a people’s historian. Like bell hooks, Betita Martinez and Gloria Anzaldúa, I am a feminist/womanist of color. My Back has been a Bridge. I have Rethought not only Columbus, but all the conquistadores and crusaders you admire. I have sung the praises of Tecumseh and Jigonsaseh and Urayoan who were likewise dedicated to building solidarity among their own people and advocated the overthrowing of any government built on genocide, conquest and exploitation. I don’t, it’s true, bother with instigating mere resentment. I go straight for rage and its beautiful daughter, esperanza.
My mother Rosario boldly stated “I will not eat myself up inside anymore. I am going to eat you.” She said she was what she was. She wrote a Master’s thesis calling Claude Levi-Strauss a racist, and she made fun of him, too.
May, 1933
In the spring of 1933, German Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels called for a literary cleansing by fire, to purge the “un-German” spirit from educational institutions, “purify” German language and literature, uphold “traditional German values” and turn the universities into centers of nationalist propaganda. Like you, he was worried about civilization. Mobs of nationalists pulled books from the shelves of college libraries (including the works of Ernest Hemmingway, Helen Keller and Jack London,) and threw them on bonfires in the streets. German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht, whose books were honored in the flames, wrote a poem on behalf of those, like myself, who were not, establishing a precedent for my complaint.
In “The Burning of the Books” he wrote of “a banished writer, one of the best” who scanned the lists of burned books and like me “was shocked to find that his books had been passed over.” The writer rushed to his desk “on wings of wrath” and wrote to those in power “Burn me! Haven’t my books always reported the truth? And here you are, treating me like a liar! I command you! Burn me!”
My Mama says STOP!
By failing to ban Getting Home Alive, Medicine Stories, and Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueñas, you are treating me like a liar instead of a digger for the roots of truth, a scribe for the imperial chronicles of Fox News instead of the many-colored codices of liberation, a sad assimilationist longing to be just like you, instead of the fierce, malanga-eating, mixed-blood madre poeta bruja revolucionaria that I am. You are insulting the memory and tarnishing the reputation of my mother spitting in the eye of colonial anthropology and the FBI. You have committed libel by omission.
Like the banished German writer of Brecht’s poem, I demand for myself, and for my Bronx Boricua mama whose ghost can still eat you: Ban me! I command you! Ban me!
________Egla Martinez
Assistant Professor
Carleton University
(On leave)
(On leave)
JANUARY 18, 2012The (Mis)education of the Coming Majority
Neo-Racism in the Southwest
by JORGE MARISCAL>>Yolanda Sotelo, now in her thirtieth year of teaching in Tucson schools, was informed last week that monitors would visit her classroom to make sure banned books were not being used. Teachers who assigned reading from prohibited titles would be reprimanded. Monitors would also evaluate all posters in the classroom. In other words, no critical thinking, no critical history, and no critical pedagogy for the new Calibans who must take their designated places in the market economy and forget their past.<<==========Brave New World?
Arizona school district bans books by Chicano, Native American authors Ethnic book ban in Arizona school district includes all books about Mexican-American history, even Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. Ban is part of termination of ethnic studies program in Tucson By Rheana Murray January 18, 2012 "NYDN" -- An Arizona school district largely made up of Mexican-Americans has been forced to slash its ethnic studies program, and now the books are going, too. The Tucson Unified School District released the titles of its banned books on Friday, a lengthy list that removes every textbook dealing with Mexican-American history - and even Shakespeare. The book ban is part of a curriculum change to avoid "biased, political and emotionally charged" teaching, CNN reported. "The Tempest," one of the playwright's classics, is among the books removed, as teachers were urged to stay away from any works where "race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes," the website Salon reported. The school faces a multimillion-dollar fine if it doesn't comply with the ban. Even local titles were cut, including "Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years," which includes an essay by Tucson author Leslie Silko, and served as a textbook for 20 years. "By ordering teachers to remove 'Rethinking Columbus,' the Tucson school district has shown tremendous disrespect for teachers and students," said Bill Bigelow, the book's editor. "This is a book that has sold over 300,000 copies and is used in school districts from Anchorage to Atlanta, and from Portland, Ore. to Portland, Maine. It offers teaching strategies and readings teachers can use to help students think about the perspectives that are too often silenced in the traditional curriculum." "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" and "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos" also will be banned. The two books were often targeted by state superintendent John Huppenthal, who pushed for the program's cut. The abolition of ethnic studies in the school district, where more than 60% of students come from Mexican-American backgrounds, has sparked a backlash since the judge announced the 13-year-old program's termination on Tuesday. Arizona State University professor Simon Ortiz expressed disappointment in a blog post. "The banning explicitly and pointedly shows it is not only Mexican-American Studies and people and so-called illegal immigrants that are targeted, but indigenous studies and people as a whole," he wrote. Bigelow, who also works as an editor of Rethinking Schools magazine, says the books shouldn't be forbidden. "The only other time a book of mine was banned was in 1968, when the apartheid government in South Africa banned 'Strangers in Their Own Country,' a curriculum I'd written that included a speech by then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela," said Bigelow.ALERT- Effective Today All CA Schools Ban Mex-Am/Native Am books? Thanks for posting this, Gus. Here's the link for everyone to register to attend or support the legal struggle:
"We know what the South African regime was afraid of. What is the Tucson school district afraid of?"
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2565326962/efblike9 Angela Garcia-Sims gus chavez <guschavez2000@YAHOO.COM>
ALERT- Effective Today All CA Schools Ban Mex-Am/Native Am books?
Media Headlines: ALERT- Effective today All CA Schools Ban Mex-Am/Native Am Books? Millions of California public school students are to be affected by the new exclusion policy. Latino student enrollment in California k-12 schools now numbers over fifty percent and stand to suffer a devastating academic and personal loss by this new policy. This is particularly true in those schools where Mexican American/Chicano Studies classes are offered as part of the core curriculum. According to the notice "The banned books include "Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years," edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson; Shakespeare’s play "The Tempest"; "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire; "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos" by Rodolfo Acuña; and "Chicano!: The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement" by F. Arturo Rosales. The now banned reading list of the Tucson schools' Mexican American Studies includes "two books by Native American author Sherman Alexie and a book of poetry by O'odham poet Ofelia Zepeda." Other banned Native American books include Suzan Shown Harjo's "We Have No Reason to Celebrate,"Buffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country, 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying," Joseph Bruchac's "A Friend of the Indians," Cornel Pewewardy's "A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas," N. Scott Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee," Michael Dorris's "Why I'm Not Thankful for Thanksgiving," Leslie Marmon's "Ceremony," Wendy Rose's "Three Thousand Dollar Death Song," Winona LaDuke's "To the Women of the World: Our Future, Our Responsibility"
It is reported that "teachers have also been informed to stay away from any books or in-school discussions where "race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes." This new policy has cast a dark and oppressive apartheid cloud over all California schools. Friends, imagine that the above policy, like the one imposed in Tucson Arizona, was also true and irreversible in California? Without a doubt, the future of Latinos and Latinas as well as countless others would be in jeopardy due to a massive void in the quality and academic success of education programs that are critical to our future. The Tucson public school's highly successful Mexican American Studies program, now eliminated (until the courts rule otherwise), is a nationally recognized example of what is vital and needed in our community. Can this same exclusionary policy be implemented in California? Yes it can. Just look at the composition of school boards, state boards of education and administrators like those in Tucson Arizona whose utter dislike of Mexican Americans and immigrants have trampled the education rights of our students, parents and community. Compare them to those in California. YES, it can happen in California. Want to know more about this oppressive policy and the elimination of Tucson's acclaimed and highly successful Mexican Studies Program? To fight blatant discrimination and the spread of this civil/human rights violation to other states, join us for a fundraiser ($10, but hope you can donate more!) for: SAVE ETHNIC STUDIES
Saturday, February 25, 2012
2:00 p.m.
Lincoln High School4777 Imperial Avenue
San Diego, 92113 Gus Chavez
San Diego, CA
ALERT- Effective Today All CA Schools Ban Mex-Am/Native Am books? Thanks for posting this, Gus. Here's the link for everyone to register to attend or support the legal struggle:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2565326962/efblike9 Angela Garcia-Sims ALERT- Effective Today All CA Schools Ban Mex-Am/Native Am books? Media Headlines: ALERT- Effective today All CA Schools Ban Mex-Am/Native Am Books? Millions of California public school students are to be affected by the new exclusion policy. Latino student enrollment in California k-12 schools now numbers over fifty percent and stand to suffer a devastating academic and personal loss by this new policy. This is particularly true in those schools where Mexican American/Chicano Studies classes are offered as part of the core curriculum. According to the notice "The banned books include "Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years," edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson; Shakespeare’s play "The Tempest"; "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire; "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos" by Rodolfo Acuña; and "Chicano!: The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement" by F. Arturo Rosales. The now banned reading list of the Tucson schools' Mexican American Studies includes "two books by Native American author Sherman Alexie and a book of poetry by O'odham poet Ofelia Zepeda." Other banned Native American books include Suzan Shown Harjo's "We Have No Reason to Celebrate,"Buffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country, 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying," Joseph Bruchac's "A Friend of the Indians," Cornel Pewewardy's "A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas," N. Scott Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee," Michael Dorris's "Why I'm Not Thankful for Thanksgiving," Leslie Marmon's "Ceremony," Wendy Rose's "Three Thousand Dollar Death Song," Winona LaDuke's "To the Women of the World: Our Future, Our Responsibility" It is reported that "teachers have also been informed to stay away from any books or in-school discussions where "race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes." This new policy has cast a dark and oppressive apartheid cloud over all California schools. Friends, imagine that the above policy, like the one imposed in Tucson Arizona, was also true and irreversible in California? Without a doubt, the future of Latinos and Latinas as well as countless others would be in jeopardy due to a massive void in the quality and academic success of education programs that are critical to our future. The Tucson public school's highly successful Mexican American Studies program, now eliminated (until the courts rule otherwise), is a nationally recognized example of what is vital and needed in our community. Can this same exclusionary policy be implemented in California? Yes it can. Just look at the composition of school boards, state boards of education and administrators like those in Tucson Arizona whose utter dislike of Mexican Americans and immigrants have trampled the education rights of our students, parents and community. Compare them to those in California. YES, it can happen in California. Want to know more about this oppressive policy and the elimination of Tucson's acclaimed and highly successful Mexican Studies Program? To fight blatant discrimination and the spread of this civil/human rights
violation to other states, join us for a fundraiser ($10, but hope you can
donate more!) for: SAVE ETHNIC STUDIES
Saturday, February 25, 2012
2:00 p.m.
Lincoln High School4777 Imperial Avenue
San Diego, 92113
Gus Chavez
San Diego, CADorinda: The two books for reading at this time – one was published in 1965 and the other in 2007 –
The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi – Beacon Press, Boston, 1965
Exalted Subjects – Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in Canada by Sunera Thobani
University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2007
Juan Ramos, Ph.D http://somosenescrito.blogspot.com/2012/01/time-to-speak-out-first-they-ban-books.html Time to speak out: First they ban the booksBy Armando RendónThe Tucson Unified School District declared illegal this past week the teaching of Mexican American studies in the district. From several reports, books were literally taken out of children’s hands. So far the TUSD has come short of burning the books; they are simply stored somewhere, perhaps for later destruction.
Books have been banned because according to the TUSD and Arizona politicians they attack American values, distort history, and provoke rebellion. This magazine, “Somos en escrito,” has been created purposefully to promote writing and spread the literary works of writers of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and other Hispanic origins.
WE MUST ALL SPEAK OUT. It is time for one voice to be raised, made up of thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of voices against this atrocity, this assault upon intellect and denial of liberty.
The TUSD officials have no understanding that their action violates the basic right of freedom of speech. Hand in hand with that freedom is the right to read, to learn, to know. It is they who attack basic American ideals, seek to erase history and rebel against the Union.
The author of one of the banned books, Rudy Acuña, suggested some excerpts from his book, Occupied America: his words attack all right: attack ignorance and denial of basic human rights under the color of law; distort for sure: distort for the racist and bigot their vision of a world they would strive to control and opportunity they would seek to withhold to themselves, and provoke absolutely: provoke inquiry, exchange of ideas, renewal of American values, collaboration in building for the future, and common decency.
The TUSD mentality is bound to crush itself under its own weight of racism and bigotry—nothing will stop the evolution of an informed and organized electorate in Tucson and the rest of Arizona. Perhaps that is what the TUSD board and those who support their actions fear the most: the tide of change that’s coming that will sweep them away along with their intolerance and meanness.Excerpts from the fourth edition of Occupied America, which seems to be the edition the Tucson Unified School District banned. With the author’s permission.Preface pp. 16-17“So much of my career has been wrapped around Occupied America, that before each edition I feel that I am whispering into the ear of a priest, “It has been twelve years since my last confession.” Indeed, this time around it has been difficult to cram my confessions into one volume. So much has happened in the past decade as Chicanas/os have been thrust into the national spotlight, not only by their numbers but in their visibility nationally. Reflecting back to the first edition in 1972, the taco was still unknown to most Euroamericans outside the Southwest, and Chicano educators chuckled at the anecdote that Chicano children were marked down in an aptitude test for answering “taco” when asked to unscramble “oact”—the “right” answer was “coat.” This would probably not be the case today: The taco has become part of the national cuisine. Yet, although Euroamericans now eat chili, the question has to be asked: Do they know or care any
more than they did 30 years ago about Chicanos or Latinos?
“As with the three previous editions, the fourth edition is written in the context of the tensions of the time. Foremost on my mind in writing this edition was the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe and the 400th anniversary of Juan de Oñate’s invasion of what is today New Mexico. The mythology surrounding these events, especially the latter, profoundly disturbed me. On one hand, Chicanos in New Mexico condemned the injustice of the invasion and theft of the Southwest by the United States of America; on the other, they wanted to celebrate the invasion of the same territory by the descendants of the conquistadores. Then they were surprised that Native Americans were protesting the Hispanos’ version of history.
“This experience led me to reevaluate my previous opposition to including history from before 1821. Always pressured by the publishers for page space, I rationalized that this material would be covered in other books, which was not so. With the exception of Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez’s work, the linkage between the interior of Mexico and what Rámon Ruiz calls the “Rim of Mexico” is largely absent in Chicana/o historiography. I felt that it was my obligation, if not my duty, to deal with the march from Zacatecas, the Spaniard’s conquest of what is today Mexico’s northwest. In this endeavor, the work of Northern Arizona University historian Susan Deeds provided a bright light, as did the work of La Familía, a grassroots group out of Golden West College, who are meticulously piecing together the history of Chihuahua. It became clear in their research that Mexican Americans are the product of a bloody conquest which involved not only the genocide
of native peoples but also their enslavement. Moreover, the racial mixture was not simply Spaniard and Native American but included Africans brought in as slaves and later wage workers in the mines.”~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Chapter 3 pp, 3-4 within chapter 3“An irritant between Mexicans and Euroamericans was the question of runaway slaves. Black Texan slaves crossed into Mexico to freedom, aggravating the situation. By 1855 some 4,000 fugitive slaves had run away to northern Mexico. Texas authorities valued the loss at $3.2 million and blamed Mexican authorities for encouraging slaves to escape. When owners demanded their return, Mexican authorities refused and EuroTexans led several expeditions to recover runaways, greatly adding to border tensions. Their anger at authorities soon was generalized to include all Mexicans, who were all suspected of aiding the Blacks. Tensions grew so strong in 1853 that the federal government stationed 2,176 soldiers in the state of Texas out of a standing national army of 10,417. The next year, they passed an ordinance in Seguín forbidding Mexicans to enter the county or associate with Blacks. The framers made it clear that its purpose was to control the Mexican
menace. Naturally, all Mexicans were presumed guilty of loyalty to the Mexican government.
“The boundary question also remained unanswered, with all the territory between the Río Grande and the Nueces River in dispute. Euroamerican immigration into the Republic of Texas increased, reaching 100,000 by the 1840s. The Mexican population was isolated mainly in the San Antonio region, the Río Grande Valley, and the El Paso area. It showed a steady growth in the nineteenth century, increasing from 2,240 (exclusive of soldiers), to over 4,000 in 1836, and to over 14,000 in 1850, which probably represented a dramatic undercount. “The Rio Grande Valley towns of Matamoros-Brownsville developed relationships between Mexican Americans and Anglo-Americans on both sides of the border, being one of the oldest and more strategic of the border towns. In time, Laredo, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and El Paso also grew in response to the demands for goods and services of various army forts along the river. Simultaneously, trade with northern Mexico grew. The
founders of border towns, with the exception of Laredo, were merchants. Increased trade drew Mexicans from the interior of Mexico to the Rio Grande.” Euroamerican merchants assumed airs of superiority, and soon they were not content with the trade and began to monopolize the land.”~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Chapter 14, p 1 within the chapter.“Until the 1980s, part of the American Dream was that your children’s lives would be better than yours. For most Americans, this dream folded during this decade. In the 1950s, high school graduates had options: they could work for a factory, start a business, or go to college. The odds that they could lead a better life than their parents were good. In a more limited degree this was also true of Mexican Americans and other minorities. The 1980s saw a fundamental change in this dream: union jobs in heavy industry were scarce; starting a business took large amounts of capital; and even if one graduated from college, one was not assured of a job. More and more, both parents had to work. More and more, what the parents accumulated was the basis of the success of their children. For most minorities, owning a home became a forgotten dream.
“For other Latinos, who came to share the Chicanos’ legacy of racism in the United States, the inheritance of class became the determinant for future success. Although many educators and social scientists attempted to blame the lack of Chicano upward mobility on the immigrants and/or their culture, Donald J. Bogue, in his study of the 1980 census, The Population of the United States: Historical Trends and Future Projections, dismisses this myth of the role of culture, for example, in the Asian’s school performance, concluding that income is more important than culture. Bogue generalizes, “The tendency to enroll one’s children in preschool and for children not to drop out of high school is strongly correlated with the income of the family in which the child is a member.” In other words, poverty determines educational success.
“Nationwide, according to the 1980 census, the median education of Mexican American students was 9.9 years, the lowest of the so-called Spanish-origin groups. Over 50 percent of Mexican children had under a tenth-grade education. Considering the high-tech revolution, the possibility of these students enjoying the benefits of technological change was minimal. After studying the 1980 census, Professor Bogue asked whether North American society had reached the saturation point in educational progress. He concluded that perhaps the goal of 100 percent literacy could not be reached.”Rodolfo F. Acuña, Ph.D., was founding Chair of Chicano Studies, California State University Northridge, and a Professor there since 1969. Widely recognized for his scholarship and academic leadership, Acuña is author of the acclaimed work, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, now in its sixth edition. Rutgers University Press published his latest book, The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe, last year. Now in progress is an autobiography, titled, “Footprints: Fifty Years of Activism and Research.”Armando Rendón is editor of “Somos en escrito” Magazine.Armando Rendón, Editor
Somos en escrito Magazine
510-219-9139 CellFrom Juan Ramos, Ph.DJohn Kenneth Galbraith summed it up perfectly when he said: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness".Sometimes I think Mencken was right: "The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected“.
Gandhi said, “The worst form of violence is poverty”.
Dr. B R Ambedkar stated: “Lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurper, but by a relentless struggle”. Unite -- Agitate
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'Pueblos En Movimiento', 2012 Calendar/Calendario
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