Judge bars state intervention in Mexican American Studies

From Three Sonorans

"Tucson, AZ – Today, a Tucson federal court barred the State of Arizona from intervening in an ongoing school desegregation case involving discrimination against Latino students by the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The State sought to intervene in order to impose arbitrary restrictions on ethnic studies courses in Tucson schools based on a 2010 state law, A.R.S. 15-112, that was proposed and has been used solely to target Mexican American Studies courses. The court rejected the State’s attempt to intervene, ruling that ” [a]ny state law or state interest found to be contrary to or an impediment to the desegregation efforts mandated by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals…must yield to the supremacy of the Federal Constitution.”

Read the whole article:http://threesonorans.com/2012/06/14/judge-bars-state-intervention-in-mexican-american-studies-case-is-tucson/

Librotraficantes en Tucson

Better Late than Nunca

This is a bit anachronistic, but here's some photos and descriptions from Dia de San Patricio when the Librotraficantes brought banned books to Tucson. Sorry for the delay...

Members of MECHA at Tucson High School thank and welcome librotraficante (http://librotraficante.com/) Tony Diaz by presenting him with posters from Save Ethnic Studies (http://saveethnicstudies.org/), the organization working against the banning of Tucson Unified School District’s Ethnic Studies program and books.


Save Ethnic Studies posters (http://saveethnicstudies.org/poster_w_donation.shtml)

Tucson High School student acknowledges the former Ethnic Studies educators and students in attendance. One of the librotraficantes came forward and recited a poem about the students’ spirit of resistance.

Tucson High Students ask everyone present to write words of encouragement on the poster with images associated with Tucson Ethnic Studies, librotraficantes, banned books and student walkouts (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/tucson-ethnic-studies_b_1224256.html).


Diaz introduces the young woman (left) who recounted her experience walking out o f classes, resulting in suspension, as a part of the protest of the outlawing of Ethnic Studies and the banning of the curriculum’s books. Afterwards, Diaz also introduced the defendants, former students in the Ethnic Studies program, (right) in the lawsuit against the State of Arizona.

Calling forward the eight year old boy (left center) who had been metal detected (http://drcintli.blogspot.com/2012/03/tusd-tax-dollars-at-work.html), Diaz presented the boy with a book from his “madrina” Sandra Cisneros.

When asked why he wanted to learn about his culture, the boy responded, “It’s me and it’s what I want to be.” Former Ethnic Studies teacher Curtis Acosta (center) thanked the librotraficantes for their work, explaining that some of the teachers have had a chance to travel to different locations, speaking with people who supported them while the students could not experience the same love. Acosta said the librotraficantes helped bring the love to Tucson.

Attendee signs Tucson High School’s MECHA poster.

The underground library with the books banned by Tucson Unified School District. Librotraficantes hold up banned books for photographer (center) and documentarian (left).

Hanging with Elisa Meza (http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?Itemid=74&id=31&jumival=6702&option=com_content&task=view)