Tony Mares' "Ode to los librotraficantes"

 I posted the Librotraficante video which responsed to the banning of the books in Tucson High's Ethnic Studies program, and I was turned onto this poem by Tony Mares (http://www.tonyscantina.com/index.htm):


From Tony Mares' website:

Ode to los librotraficantes

You carry books as you roll along
in your caravan through Texas, New Mexico,
and on to Arizona. You are
the most dangerous caravan in America.

Once your ancestors crossed the Rio Grande,
their bodies wet from the swirling water,
the sweat running down their backs.
Now you carry wet books in your caravan,
books dripping with wisdom. You are

the most dangerous caravan in America.
You scatter books in underground libraries
along the highways of the Southwest. You are
lighting the fires of imagination in young minds
of all cultures along your route. You are
the most dangerous caravan in America.
...
Tony Mares
02/​18/​12

My poem dedicated to the brave cultural warriors who take banned books to Arizona

Read the rest at: http://www.tonyscantina.com/ode_to_los_librotraficantes_112920.htm

Parody of AZ book banning

Wet Books: Smuggling Banned Literature Back Into Arizona

With any good satire, there is an active play upon an assumption or shared belief, be it true or false. In this video, a parody of smuggling banned books into Arizona is made, playing upon the assumptions about human and drug smuggling. As it has been said, humor heals, and in the situation with the Ethnic Studies programs it is better to resist and use humor to protest. However, I could imagine the purposeful misinterpretation of this video by conservatives who already base arguments on the conflation of narcos and migrant workers.