nuestravoz.uno Our History. Our Culture. Our Voice. Latino Books Once Banned In Arizona 1) Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, by Rodolfo Acuña The most successful book written by professor Rodolfo Acuña, Occupied America represents all that Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne opposed in the Mexican-American Studies program when he launched the attack against it. Horne viewed the curriculum as separatist and ethnically divisive. HB 2281, the law used to ban TUSDs Mexican American Studies program, prohibits courses that promote the overthrow of the United States government or are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group. These people think youre a separatist if you want to teach and include people, Acuña told the Los Angeles Times in 2011. I dont want to be part of Mexico ... Thats a stupid thing to argue. 2) 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, compiled by Elizabeth Martinez This compilation tells the story of Chicano history from before the European conquest of North America, through colonization and into the present day. The book describes the Southwest as Occupied America -- a term that Arizona conservatives often view as unjust and disparaging. Actor Edward James Olmos felt differently: If young people read this book, they will be strong and proud in new ways, he said on the dust jacket to the 1990 edition. Its a real education, in the true sense of that word. 3) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire This seminal work by Brazilian education professor Paulo Freire argued that students learn best when treated as equals and engaged on their own terms. Freire argues against the banking model of education, in which teachers treat students as passive recipients of knowledge. His work is studied by education specialists throughout the hemisphere. In a 2012 interview, Arizona Superintendent of Education John Huppenthal explained why he viewed the book as problematic: The title of Paulo Freires book is Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and so the question is, who is the oppressed? And as we looked at what was going on in the classroom and looked at what was in the materials, we saw they were putting together a Marxian model in the classroom in which the oppressed are the Hispanic students and the oppressors are the white Caucasian power structure. We came to the conclusion that it wasnt O.K. to be preaching that model in the classroom. 4) Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, by Bill Bigelow A collection of essays, interviews, lesson plans and other materials, Rethinking Columbus aims to change the way students understand the first interactions between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Europeans. One contributing author, Tucsons own Leslie Silko, boasts a Native Writers Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award and a MacArthur Foundation genius grant. 5) Critical Race Theory, by Richard Delgado The academic field of critical race theory challenges traditional ways of looking at race and racism. The fields theoreticians argue that supposedly neutral concepts and institutions, like meritocracy or the legal system, mask systemic inequality and institutionalized racism. Richard Delgados books is one of the disciplines classics. Some conservatives view critical race theory as dangerous because some of its proponents view the Constitution and the fabric of American democracy as imbued with racism. During the course of several interviews in 2012, Julio Cammarota, a professor of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona, You can see the problem, cant you? One side doesnt want to talk about race, the other side wants to talk about race all the time. 6) Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, by Arturo Rosales This well-regarded study of the Chicano movement serves as a companion to the 1996 PBS documentary of the same name. 7) Arte Publico Press Message to Aztlán: Selected Writings of Rodolfo Corky Gonzalez The term Aztlán refers to the mythic homeland of the Nahua of Central Mexico. Intellectuals of the Chicano movement adopted the term to describe the southwestern United States. Mexican-American Studies teachers at Tucson Unified School District taught those concepts with books like this one, by Rodolfo Corky Gonzalez, a writer and political activist who helped found the Chicano Movement in the 1960s.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 01:32:25 +0000
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