Anti-Mexican Studies bigots now banning books

Another racist message from Arizona’s ruling class has been sent to oppressed people and especially Latinos/as of Mexican descent. That message is: Get back, get down, your lives are worth nothing to this system.

On Jan. 10, the Tucson Unified School District voted to suspend its Mexican-American Studies Program after an administrative law judge ruled that it violated a new state law and could lose millions of dollars in annual aid for a particular school district.

According to various news sources, 60 percent of the 53,000 students in that school district are Latino/a. Arizona is also ground zero for vile anti-immigrant legislation.

Reminiscent of book burnings under Nazi Germany, immediately after the ruling, school officials began to gather up any books that dealt with Chicano or Mexican-American history. Sometimes those books were gathered up right in front of the students who had come to class to study their history.

“Chicano” is the term that many Mexicans born in the United States or whose families have lived here for generations use to identify themselves. It is synonymous with pride in one’s history and a symbol of resistance against racism and occupation.

As Tucson journalist Roberto Cintli Rodriguez wrote, “First, the Tucson school district came for the Mexican-American studies program. Now it’s come for its books.” (http://drcintli.blogspot.com)

One of those racists behind this latest attack is Arizona State Superintendent John Huppenthal. On Jan. 6, Huppenthal threatened that about 10 percent of the district’s state funding, about $15 million over the course of a year, would be withheld if it did not dismantle its Mexican-American studies courses.

According to CNN, that came after a December administrative law ruling stating that “the program was teaching ‘in a biased, political and emotionally charged manner,’ and upheld a state finding that it violated a 2010 law that bans ethnic studies classes which ‘promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.’ In Tucson, only Mexican-American studies classes were affected.” (Jan. 22)

The books in question include “500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures,” edited by Elizabeth Martinez; “Message to AZTLAN,” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales; “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos,” by Rodolfo Acuña; “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” by Paulo Freire; and “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years,” edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson, as well as a reading by Shakespeare.

This racist attack on people’s history had an immediate impressive response from individuals and organizations. One of those organizations was a group that has been organizing against this assault for a long time.

UNIDOS (United) heroically took over a school board meeting in April 2011 and chained themselves to board members’ chairs.

In their statement, in part, on the recent ruling, Alonso Palomino says: “While the institution continues to fail us, the community continues to rise. Ethnic Studies is abolished inside the gates of our schools but not in the streets of our community. UNIDOS presents: School of Ethnic Studies, the first steps to reclaiming our education.”

This response was one of many heroic acts of resistance. Students walked out of school for a day, and a major event is planned for Jan. 24.

James E. Garcia of Phoenix is a university lecturer and playwright. He writes, “A relatively small contingent of powerful, bigoted public officials have worked relentlessly to make it happen. Why did it happen? It happened because the state’s Latino population has nearly doubled in the past 20 years and the right wing is angry and afraid that it is helpless to stop it. In one generation, Latinos will be 50 percent of the state’s population and, short of declaring martial law and deporting everyone with brown skin, there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent that. “ (The Arizona Republic, Jan. 15)

The dismantling of progressive ideas in education is but one of many attacks sweeping the country. Demonizing people’s history takes place amidst the deportations of over 1 million workers.

All of this is in the context of the push by the capitalist ruling class to drive down the standard of living of all workers in this country. Education for our youth, just like a job for all, is not only not a priority, it is not even on the to-do list.

In this election year, it becomes ever clearer that only the struggle, only the fightback in the streets, in Washington, at our workplaces, everywhere is the solution to a lack of education, housing and so on.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Chicano movement fought like hell for the right to study our history. It is not a right we will let go of. This writer was politically shaped by the writings of one of the authors who are now banned in Arizona, Rodolfo Acuña. He is a hero of the Chicano people. His words quoted here are a clarion call to struggle, a call we should all rise to.

Acuña eloquently writes: “From the top on down, Arizona officials know that their actions is causing many Latinos to be stigmatized. They know that they are contributing to their dropping out of school and they don’t care. …

“My mother would say about the gaggle in Tucson, no tienen madre. They are disrespectful; they don’t care about the law, or how many people are hurt by their actions.

“I am not as nice as my mother was. I feel much like the people in the Boyle Heights area when the Night Stalker … was terrorizing Los Angeles. They put out signs daring him to come East of the River, and then took care of him when he did. Hopefully the Tea Party will come to L.A.” (AztlanReads.com, Jan. 16)

From the Southwest and beyond, the message to Huppenthal and all the racist reactionary capitalists must be: 500 years of Chicano history will never be swept away with the stroke of a pen.

The writer was heavily involved in the Chicano movement in Texas, including membership in MAYO (Mexican American Youth Organization), Raza Unida Party and CASA-HGT.