Learn more about Mexican-American studies controversy spotlighted in this month’s Hot Topics.

For more insight into this month’s Hot Topics, Class Dismissed, about Arizona’s controversial law banning ethnic studies classes, check out the following links, lists, and court documents.

To Ban or Not to Ban?
After the dissolution of the Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD) Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program, school administrators went into classrooms and removed all copies of seven books that were part of the curriculum. School officials stressed that the books were not banned but merely moved to a warehouse and then to school libraries. But former MAS director Sean Arce says, “When you take away books and you box them in front of students and you restrict them from usage, from studying in a classroom, then it’s definitely a ban... How many kids are going to go to the library and read these books, especially when you have hundreds of students enrolled in these classes, and you have one copy, or two copies, and in many instances no copies at some of the libraries.”
  
Another 70-something books, such as Mexican WhiteBoy and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, were not disallowed, but nor were they allowed to be taught by former MAS teachers in particular, Arce says – at least not if race and oppression were mentioned in the lessons.

The seven books removed from classrooms:

Critical Race Theory, by Richard Delgado
500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, edited by Elizabeth Martínez
Message to AZTLAN, by Rodolfo Corky Gonzáles
Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement, by Arturo Rosales
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, by Rodolfo Acuña
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, by Bill Bigelow

The other books previously part of the MAS curriculum that were not allowed to be taught by former MAS teachers, at least if race and oppression were mentioned:

The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
United States Government: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy
Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990), by H. Zinn
The Anaya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya
The American Vision (2008), by J. Appleby et el.
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga
De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E. S. Martinez
Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez
The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn
Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie
The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin
Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo
Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. de la Peña
Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb
At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), by E. Guevara
Color Lines: “Does Anti-War Have to Be Anti-Racist Too?” (2003), by E. Martinez
Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya et al.
Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte
Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz
The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki
The Devil’s Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea
Puro Teatro: A Latino Anthology (1999), by A. Sandoval-Sanchez & N. Saporta Sternbach
Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J. Yolen
Voices of a People’s History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn
Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), by S. Alexie
Zorro (2005), by I. Allende
Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua
A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca
C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), by J. S. Baca
Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca
Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca
Black Mesa Poems (1989), by J. S. Baca
Martin & Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca
The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America’s Public Schools (19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga
Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States (2005), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo
Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985), by C. E. Chavez
Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros
Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist
Zapata’s Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada
Like Water for Chocolate (1995), by L. Esquievel
When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. Garcia
La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia
Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garcia-Camarilo, et al.
The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb
Saving Our Schools: The Case for Public Education, Saying No to “No Child Left Behind” (2004) by Goodman, et al.
Feminism is for Everybody (2000), by b hooks
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (1991), by J. Kozol
Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz
Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993), by T. D. Rebolledo & E. S. Rivero
…y no se lo trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T. Rivera
Always Running – La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodriguez
Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez
The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick & E. Currie
Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1986), by T. Sheridan
Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla
Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum
New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum
Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau
By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea
Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea
Zoot Suit and Other Plays (1992), by L. Valdez
Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), by O. Zepeda
Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Yo Soy Joaquin/I Am Joaquin, by Rodolfo Gonzales
Into the Beautiful North, by Luis Alberto Urrea

To Teach The Tempest or Not Teach The Tempest?
For a fascinating conversation between TUSD MAS teacher Curtis Acosta, TUSD assistant superintendent Abel Morado, and Tucson High School Assistant Principal David Mandel discussing whether The Tempest can be taught without veering into race issues that could be seen as violating Arizona law, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlWpYz1KyjE

Court Documents and Testimonies
To see documents and lesson plans from TUSD’s Mexican-American Studies program, read testimony from witnesses, and learn the details of the court hearing that determined TUSD’s MAS program violated Arizona’s law, visit: www.tucsonsentinel.com/documents/doc/122711_tusd_mas_doc/

To read the Cambium audit of the TUSD’s MAS program initiated by state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal, visit: www.scribd.com/doc/58025928/TUSD-ethnic-studies-audit

To read testimonies about the pros and cons of Tucson’s ethnic studies classes from Tom Horne, attorney general and former superintendent of public instruction, and Richard Martinez, lawyer for the TUSD teachers, at a hearing last March, click here.