Tucson's MAS Banned Book Club

Channel 4 Coverage Demonstrates "Narration Sickness" Freire Critiques

Yesterday, I attended the book club for books banned when Tucson High's Ethnic Studies program was outlawed. A Channel 4 camera crew documented book club's generative session in which the club engaged with the themes of the texts, often relating them to relevant sociopolitical contexts; however, the Channel 4 coverage creates a distorted depiction of the story, imposing a polemic argument that allows an un-credible, anonymous commentator to present a narrow perspective. News 4's coverage further inflames paranoia by allowing the voice in the shadows to shape the presentation of the story, juxtaposing an extremist voice in shadows with the well-spoken participants of the book club.


From: http://www.kvoa.com/videoplayer/?video_id=10302&categories=15

Read the Books and Check Out What the Club is About
Mexican American Studies Book Club

In January, 2012, the TUSD Governing Board voted to suspend the Mexican American Studies program. The books used in the program were collected from classrooms and put into storage. This book club will read and discuss some of those books. The purpose is to demonstrate, through the reading of these works, the value they have for youth in our community. The book discussions will be facilitated by Marissa M. Juarez, PhD from the University of Arizona. You can find some of the books at the library. All are available at Amazon.com.

Reading schedule:
May 16: Pedagogy of the Oppressed
 by Paulo Freire

May 30: Chicano!: The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement
 by Francisco Arturo Rosales

June 13: Borderlands/La Frontera
 by Gloria Anzaldua

June 27: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
 by Sherman Alexie

July 11: The House on Mango Street
 by Sandra Cisneros

July 25: The Devil's Highway: A True Story
 by Luis Alberto Urrea

August 8: Zigzagger
 by Manuel Munoz

Joel D. Valdez Main Library
101 N Stone, Tucson AZ
Every other Wednesday starting May 16th
6:00 pm in the Children’s Meeting Room
Free program – teens and adults welcome - 791-4010

Luis Alberto Urrea Addresses Tucson Ban of Books

They Don't Gotta Burn a Book/They Just Remove Them
Just before the 30 minute mark, Bill Moyer asks Luis Alberto Urrea about the removal of his books from Ethnic Studies classes. Urrea responds that he initially thought it was a joke when he was first informed about the ban, and then he came to understand that the ban was a removal of "books from brown hands."



In the Moyer interview, Urrea goes on to say, "It's not about books. It's about ethnicity. It's about power in Phoenix."
 
When Urrea spoke at the UA at the '11 Tucson Festival of Books, I had the chance to see him and wrote a bit about that I draw from below:

On  Friday, March 11th 2011, Marissa Juarez, Aja Martinez and I attended a reading by Luis Alberto Urrea (http://www.luisurrea.com/home.php), organized by Kathryn Ortiz. Urrea, author of Into the Beautiful North, The Devil's Highway and The Hummingbird's Daughter, spoke as a part of the UA Reads Program (http://www.uofabookstores.com/uaz/UAReads/default.asp), which Kathryn Ortiz coordinates as a Graduate Assistant for the University of Arizona’s campus bookstore. 

Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Urrea explained a lot of his fiction has been heavily influenced by friends, family and colleagues. While working in the Tijuana dump, Urrea came into contact with humble characters whose lives taught Urrea about genuine community. While he was looking for a job away from the dump, Urrea wrote a letter to a former writing instructor, asking if he could help him find a job as a janitor. The writing instructor responded with an opportunity to teach writing.

Urrea said that he always entered into the writing process with the strategy of demonstrating his love for his characters. However, he remains critical of nationalist messages he hears traveling in Mexico about Honduran immigrants. Listening to talk radio in Mexico, Urrea criticized those who spread anti-immigrant rhetoric like Spanish-speaking versions of Bill O’Reily.

   

Urrea also spoke of his own connection with Tucson, living off minute rice and hot sauce at the time he met his wife. She interviewed him while reporting for a local paper. Offering advice to writers, Urrea recommended using librarians as the heroes because every librarian will order the book. Similarly, Urrea made the point that more writers should have female heroes because there are already endless numbers of male heroes “from Beowolf to Mad Max.”