Read in China, but Banned in Tucson?
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
Think of the symbols of patriotism used, and overused in politics – most notably the stars and stripes, bald eagles, and of course the Statue of Liberty who proudly claims the quote above. There are seven rays emanating from her crown – one for each continent. Technically, Lady Liberty is so all-embracing she’d welcome native Antarcticans… if there were any.
I grew up close to the beautiful green lady. My grandmother, a native New Yorker actually got to climb up the arm to the torch itself when it was still open to the public. I remember her telling me the story when I was small, and I listened wide-eyed. She’d stood there, in 1899 and looked outward past New York harbor at the mighty Atlantic, the route taken by thousands with nothing but hope for a better life.
Today’s immigrants face a different world, and a different United States of America.
The problem of illegal immigration is complex. Nobody has the perfect answer, but Arizona has all but turned its back on the principles behind the symbol conservatives conveniently flaunt to demonstrate their love of liberty. It has gone beyond seeking solutions for illegal immigration, and is now banning books, and the study of an entire culture.
This story floored me. You can see the video of the news coverage below HERE.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An underground library effort is underway in Albuquerque to get banned Hispanic books back into Arizona.
A group is collecting books from Texas and New Mexico and creating underground libraries in Arizona.Acclaimed Mexican-American author Rudolfo Anaya helped box up books for the journey to Arizona’s underground libraries after the Tuscon Unified School District recently banned Hispanic books, including Anaya’s famous novel, “Bless Be Ultima.”
“It’s been called a classic,” Anaya said. “It’s been read all over the country, the world. I have translations in China.”
Read in China, but not in Tucson since Mexican-American studies were banned in Tucson almost a year ago. In response, a group called Librotraficantes formed in Houston to bring Hispanic novels back to Arizona.
The caravan stopped to pick up books in Albuquerque.
“That’s what we will continue to do. We’re not going to stand by and allow our history and our culture to be banned from the classroom,” Anaya said.
Anaya’s books have been used for decades in classrooms across the country.
“Diversity is good. Diversity is a fact, and the way you are going to learn more about your neighbor is by reading your literature, knowing their history, knowing who they are,” he said.
Anaya said he hopes the underground library sends a message and that one day his book will be used to educate in Arizona again.
The legislation banning Latino Studies was signed into law on May 13, 2010 by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. Brewer… Brewer… Hmm. Is that a Navajo name? Or maybe Hopi. No word yet if those tribes plan to illegalize English Studies.
“The problem of illegal immigration is complex.” And now with online programs like everifyfaq com available for individuals (& small biz owners) to check on the legal status of potential employees or even check if your nanny is legit. The Internet has really come of age.
Scared old white people..it seems..need a ..Reality Check. Anyone able to set a few researchers into a special OSS type search for..a number of these most vociferous ancient-uglys..and research the family geneologys..as to family names..back 4 generations..and show ties to other cultures? Imagine..a week of quiet..while ..say 30 of the loudest, posturing, preening types..had their family records looked through..as to country of origins? So-then..heres to those with the ability to..surf/research and uncover..genuine informations..to help those old and withered types..see themselves..for..what they are..before they contaminate..the good folk. Seems like this is a time when ..little leaves..from the family tree..might well become scalpels..to prune away crippled-old-thinking..such as ..it was.
In the late eighties, I moved from San Francisco to Phoenix. It was during the Ev Meacham administration. Helluva change in “climate,” let me tell you. It was so strange… there were no Asian people, and only a few black people. The Mexicans were considered intruders, even though Arizona used to be part of Mexico long before it became part of the US. And even though I’m a fairly boring run-of-the-mill person, I felt like a new-age hippie granola yoga health guru around those people. It was scary. I lasted three months, and moved back to the Bay Area.
Every time I think I’ve heard the most egregiously racist, misogynistic, prejudiced or just plain stupid thing coming out of Arizona politics, something new pops up and lowers the bar a little more.
I have tremendous sympathy for the seemingly few intelligent, educated, cultured, progressive people still left in AZ. I sincerely hope that the generation of scared old white people who seem to be causing the worst of the damage will soon disappear and let Arizona rejoin the 20th century (and maybe even meander into the 21st with the rest of us!).
Living most of my life in Tucson, I have to point out that here in Pima County we are a blue county in a big red state. That book banning action by TUSD was taken to avoid a crippling lawsuit from the Republican controlled legislature up in Phoenix. I know that TUSD had to take that action, and took it with a wry touch of irony, including Wm. Shakespeare on the list, along with so many other worthies – including Ofelia Zepeda my favorite Native poet, honored UA professor, restorer of the Tohono O’odham language.
Keep in mind that dear Gabrielle Giffords and Raul Grijalva have long represented contiguous neighborhoods in Tucson. We were blessed with one of the best of governors, until dear Janet Napolitano was co-opted by Obama for Homeland Security, and we were left with –the other Janet– and since then things have all gone south. But Tucson is the seat of a fine University, and rich in art and ancient culture, in an area continuously settled for a thousand years. This too shall pass.
I’ve actually spent a lot of time in Tucson, and love it dearly. Thanks for your optimism, and I certainly didn’t mean to disparage the place… just the misguided people who have taken over. Believe me, I understand how that works. *sigh*
Thank you, Scrim, for the added detail. There are a great number of good, progressive folks in the state (mostly these day, living in Tucson!) ad we need all the help and support we can get. I have been strongly tempted to leave, but someone has to stay here and keep up the fight. I just ask all the mudpuppies out there to keep sending us their good wishes and support.
I would like to know how this will pass?
I intend no disrepect nor am I being combative .
Bad law often takes a very long time to go away unless confronted directly.
Lawsuits are a part of being a nation of laws.
Who else has standing to sue the state on these matters, besides school districts?
I will have to go look at what the legislators proposed to sue the school district for.
This is breaking my heart. This is the twisted outcome of years of these schools being managed for racial balance.
The law relied upon:
“The segment says a school curriculum 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.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/mexican-american-studies-banned-_n_1324755.html
I could go on forever about the bad law and the court and the Special Master having abdicated their responsibilities and turning a blind eye to too many things to count. Maybe I will later .
Right now I so sorry for the youngsters of Arizona and so angry at fools who vote their fears I can hardly stand it.
“Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.”
Excuse me, Arizona lawmakers, but is foreign language credit still necessary for high school graduation, there? If so, then that blows the “primarily…particular ethnic group” argument.
Here in the Florida panhandle, where it’s as red as Florida gets, and as poor as Florida gets, also, too, we are a multi-ethnic community.
Everyone has a unique story to tell;
those many threads are woven into the tapestry of our world.
E Pluribus Unum.
Listen.
Read.
Think.
Ask.
Learn and Grow.
Share…
Listen.
(Repeat)
In my public high school library, the books are as diverse as our patrons.
(Spanish and Latin are the foreign language classes offered at our school.)
In addition to fiction,
non-fiction (heavy on the Biographies!),
and Reference,
we have a College and Career Center,
a Story Collection,
Graphic Fiction and non-fiction (it’s not just comics anymore),
a wonderful picture book “E is for Everybody” Collection,
and a Foreign Language Collection
including Spanish, as well as French,
and a smattering of Latin, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Japanese…
I add books each year
in the home language of our Foreign Exchange students
and languages that our English Language Learners speak.
Does Arizona still have school librarians? I sure hope they’re working with ALA and their state library associations. Our children and our libraries need us, now more than ever.
April is National School Library Month;
may I challenge us all to act locally,
to Occupy a School Library, as it were.
From boots on the ground to writing to lawmakers,
here’s a link to make a difference.
http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslissues/issuesadvocacy
thatcrowwoman
I often wonder if the Roman Empire went through similar spasms of mass idiocy prior to its decline.
Sadly I think the answer is “yes.”
It’s a lot harder to label people as “other” and hate them if you know their backgrounds and you know their given names.
So, if you want to start a war on a group of people, the best way to begin is to keep as much knowledge about them out of the general public as you can, dehumanize them, paint them as barbarians lacking in culture and morals, and then make darn sure they don’t have any opportunities to prove they don’t fit the negative stereotype assigned to them. It sounds like Arizona’s war on the “other” is on its way.
I used to think I wanted to visit there….
Arizona has been BUSY….this is even more stunning to me and will have a devastating affect on women and families…this includes a great series of maps showing how these types of legislations are spreading like a cancer throughout the country…it is happened so fast that it is really hard to keep up with!:
Five Right-Wing Violations Against Women That We Must Crush
#2 The assault on birth control isn’t over, and some want to deny women the right to use it at all. AlterNet readers were among the many who were outraged by a new bill advancing along in Arizona that would essentially allow employers to sniff through the personal history of female employees:
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-2 Monday to endorse a controversial bill that would allow Arizona employers the right to deny health insurance coverage for contraceptives based on religious objections.
Arizona House Bill 2625, authored by Majority Whip Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale, would permit employers to ask their employees for proof of medical prescription if they seek contraceptives for non-reproductive purposes, such as hormone control or acne treatment.
This provision wouldn’t just intrude on women’s privacy, writes Corey Robin, but open them up to blatant discrimination:
Notice the second provision of the Arizona legislation: employers will now have the right to question their employees about what they plan to do with their birth-control prescriptions. Not only is this a violation of the right to privacy — again, not a right our Constitution currently recognizes in the workplace — but it obviously can give employers the necessary information they need to fire an employee. If a women admits to using contraception in order to not get pregnant, there’s nothing in the Constitution to stop an anti-birth control employer from firing her.
Meanwhile, the Conference of Catholic Bishops, despite the PR loss that might have been occasioned by the all-male birth control panel, has duly voted to redouble their attacks on birth control — or in their words, their defence of “religious freedom.”
http://www.truth-out.org/five-right-wing-violations-against-women-we-must-crush/1331993365#.T2S2Ag__xFR.twitter
I started first grade in a rural town in Arizona in 1956. The Mexican and Indian kids had their classes in a totally separate wing of the school building. That way, the school could skirt the charge of segregation. The Mexicans lived on the edge of town literally across the tracks, and the Indian families were off in a place called the “rancho”,on the other side of the open-pit mine. That is the way it was back then, and it didn’t start getting better till the civil-rights movements of the late 60’s and 70’s. We elected the first Hispanic governor in 1974, the Indian nations started gaining a lot of political clout along with water and mineral rights, and we had a brief hope of actually moving towards something looking like multiculturalism. Things have gotten a lot worse since the advent of so many retirees, starting in the 80’s. They are old, white, and have money. They were afraid of the desert and of people who didn’t look or speak like them. They moved into sheltered, gated enclaves in Maricopa County, and started electing people “just like” them. And there have been lots of politicians, from Hag Brewer to sheriffs Arpaio and Babeau, more than willing to stir up the old white people’s reflexive fear and hate. Maricopa County has the money and the population base that votes, and their decisions rule the rest of the state. Much of the rest of Arizona is different: we range from liberal Democrats to plain old live-and-let-live Libertarians. But we don’t have the numbers and we don’t vote. The old white hate-based voters of Maricopa County are doomed to die off within the next 15 years, but I fear their damage will live after them.
Prejudice against people perceived as “Mexican” is nothing new in AZ, I ran into it head-on in 1954, when Anglos thought I had a Spanish name. The kids who really were descended from Spanish people knew, of course, but befriended me anyway. I learned a little of the language and an appreciation of other cultures; they may be the reason I’m having such a wonderful time in South Korea now.
I applaud the book smugglers and wish I could do more to help them. Kids need to have their horizons expanded! Bigotry will fade away then.
OT.
Boston dot com has pictures of the Idatirod that are fantastic.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/?s_campaign=search
Click below the first picture of the race for the rest of the series.
Also, too, has pictures of other races.
Those are incredibly good photos. Why don’t you post them on the Open Thread? Everyone, dogs and mushers alike, looked so determined!
Wanted to make sure that it wasn’t buried in a past post.
Excellent photos of the racers and the races,…..and not only of the races in the U.S but Europe.
There is always a current open thread for off-topic posts. People know to check it for the latest chatter and links. So no worries if it’s not the top story. It will be used until the next one goes up so that discussion on articles can remain on topic. 🙂
That’s “Bless Me Ultima” and it’s a classic.
“Hmm. Is that a Navajo name? Or maybe Hopi.”
Nope… no ho-pe in AZ right now; and I won’t hoist a brew to Brewer, or any of her racist, women-hating pals.
Someone send me an address..as a place to mail lit. to..ok? Those mentally deficient politicos..will be stunned..when the borders are flooded by books to share.
My God, they are crazy!
Our weather in PA has been strangely and unusually HOT for the last week and for the next week (we should usually have snow on the ground, but it was 77 degrees today). Spouse said today, “If this keeps up, people from Arizona will be moving here,” I said, “I SERIOUSLY HOPE NOT – do not need those RACISTS here!!! (Bad enough we have the “guns & religion” folks to contend with)
Been enjoying the motorcycle rides, considering what the weather should be, and I’m in S.E. Michigan.
Sorry Beaglemom.
Girl Scout cookies abound but I decided to donate to the den.
They said “Awwwww”
God love the “gurls”……ya’ piss ’em off and you’ll see what a “gurrrl” is!
What the heck is wrong with those people? Sun must had addled their brains.
You may be right about the sun, or something. I haven’t seen this much ignorance gathered in one ace since Sarah P. became the teaparty darling. Let’s do a diversity teach-in in every county in AZ. Open it to the public and school aged kids in particular. We could hand out banned books! 🙂