A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that in Arizona, the Tucson Unified School District had suspended the teaching of Mexican-American studies, banned the teaching of certain books   and confiscated books and teaching materials from classrooms.   As this outrageous story has been unfolding, I have been appalled but, to my surprise, have also encountered a moment of synergy and possibility.  There is a lot of un-reading that goes on in my life and around me, but Tucson presents us with a new challenge. Isn’t it time to break the ban, read the unread and forgotten, and open up space for reading where none now exists?  Let’s have reading as liberation.  Reading across borders. Leyendo tras fronteras, en todas sus multiplicidades.

 

For a while now, I have been wondering how I might start a book club in which political economy would play a central part.  The possibility of reading and reflecting with other people has captured my attention, and on the top of my list was Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  Now, to think that Freire’s book has been found to be “out of compliance with state law”, introduces a certain urgency.  Here is the list of books the School Board says it has “boxed and stored”: 

 

• 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

 

Here  is where you can read the text of the law ARS 15-112 that prohibits any courses or classes that:

 

 1. Promote the overthrow of the United States government; 2. Promote resentment toward a race or class of people; 3. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group; 4. Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.    

 

Evidently, the powers that be, decided that the Mexican-American studies program at Tucson did one or more of these things.  Incroyable!

 

So, let’s get these books out of storage and start reading.  Who will join in?  In Canada, we have a different experience of empire and integration, but we share an increasingly militarized border with the U.S. as well.  We have watched, often silently, as the Canadian state has facilitated the oppression of Aboriginal people and now we are faced with a new generation of exploitation of Turtle Island at the hands of global oil companies, among others.  We have a lot to learn from our Mexican-American sisters and brothers who have contested many forms of bordering for a very long time now.  What sort of solidarity can be built from reading together? 

 

I live in Ottawa, Canada which is a long way away from Tucson, but the fight in Arizona is our fight too.  Maybe we could begin a dialogue with the good people of Tucson who love these books and see in their pages, the story of their struggle for liberation.  Quisiera tener la oportunidad de escuchar los comentarios de los compañeros/as mexicanos también, si se los puedan dar.  

 

I would propose to begin with Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  By the end of the month, I aim to post some reflections and initiate a discussion about it.  Anyone who would like to join me in a conversation about the book would be so, so welcome! 

 

Below, you can find the complete list of books that will no longer be used following the suspension of the Mexican American Studies program.   Look at the list to see the range of beautiful books that have been banned.  

 

So, let’s begin with Freire and see where this journey may take us! 

 

BANNED MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES READING LIST

Curriculum Audit of the Mexican American Studies Department,

Tucson Unified School District, May 2, 2011.

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

 

High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20:

 

American Government/Social Justice Education Project 1, 2 – Texts and Reading Lists

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson

The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic

Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic

Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000), by P. Freire

United States Government: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy

Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F.A. Rosales

Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990), by H. Zinn

 

Table 21: American History/Mexican American Perspectives, 1, 2 – Texts and Reading Lists

Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004), by R. Acuna

The Anaya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya

The American Vision (2008), by J. Appleby et el.

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson

Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga

Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (1997), by C. Jiminez

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E. S. Martinez

500 Anos Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990), by E. S. Martinez

Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez

The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez

Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn

 

Course: English/Latino Literature 7, 8

Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie

The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin

Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo

Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros

Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. de la Pena

Drown (1997), by J. Diaz

Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb

At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), by E. Guevara

Color Lines: “Does Anti-War Have to Be Anti-Racist Too?” (2003), by E. Martinez

Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya et al.

Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte

Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz

The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki

The Devil’s Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea

Puro Teatro: A Latino Anthology (1999), by A. Sandoval- Sanchez & N. Saporta Sternbach

Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J. Yolen

Voices of a People’s History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn

 

Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6

Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), by S. Alexie

Zorro (2005), by I. Allende

Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua

A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca

C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), by J. S. Baca

Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca

Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca

Black Mesa Poems (1989), by J. S. Baca

Martin & Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca

The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America’s Public Schools (19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle

Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States (2005), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos

Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos

So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo

Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985), by C. E. Chavez

Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros

House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros

Drown (1997), by J. Diaz

Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist

Zapata’s Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada

Like Water for Chocolate (1995), by L. Esquievel

When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. Garcia

La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia

Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garcia-Camarilo, et al.

The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb

Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (2001), by Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzales

Saving Our Schools: The Case for Public Education, Saying No to “No Child Left Behind” (2004) by Goodman, et al.

Feminism if for Everybody (2000), by b hooks

The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez

Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (1991), by J. Kozol

Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz

Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993), by T. D. Rebolledo & E. S. Rivero

…y no se lo trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T. Rivera

Always Running – La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodriguez

Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez

The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez

Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick & E. Currie

Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1986), by T. Sheridan

Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla

Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum

New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum

Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau

By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea

Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea

Zoot Suit and Other Plays (1992), by L. Valdez

Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), by O. Zepeda