A Copy Of Tucson’s Banned Book List

People involved in the Mexican American Studies struggle in Tucson, Arizona recently compiled a list of the banned books from the district, as well as released a letter signed by many organizations expressing concern over First Amendment rights, given the Tucson Unified School District’s removal of these texts. Here is the letter and here is the list, also reproduced below.

Debbie Reese has compiled this list from the May 2, 2011 Cambium Report.

High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20: American Government/Social Justice Education Project 1, 2 – Texts and Reading Lists

  • Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998) by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
  • The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998) by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
  • Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001) by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
  • Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000) by P. Freire
  • 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

Table 21: American History/Mexican American Perspectives, 1, 2 – Texts and Reading Lists

  • Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004) by R. Acuña
  • The Anaya Reader (1995) by R. Anaya
  • The American Vision (2008) by J. Appleby et el.
  • Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998) by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
  • Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992) by J. A. Burciaga
  • Message to Aztlán: Selected Writings (1997) by R. Gonzales
  • De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998) by E. S. Martínez
  • 500 Años Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990) by E. S. Martínez
  • Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998) by R. Rodríguez
  • The X in La Raza II (1996) by R. Rodríguez
  • 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

Course: English/Latino Literature 7, 8

  • 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 White Boy (2008) by M. de la Pena
  • Drown (1997) by J. Díaz
  • 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. Martínez
  • 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

Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6

  • 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 (1995) 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. Hijuelos
  • So Far From God (1993) by A. Castillo
  • Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985) by C. E. Chávez
  • Women Hollering Creek (1992) by S. Cisneros
  • House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros
  • Drown (1997) by J. Díaz
  • 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. García
  • La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia
  • Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003) by C. García-Camarilo et al.
  • The Magic of Blood (1994) by D. Gilb
  • Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (2001) by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales
  •  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. Jiménez
  •  Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (1991) by J. Kozol
  • Zigzagger (2003) by M. Muñoz
  • 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. Rodríguez
  • The X in La Raza II (1996) by R. Rodríguez
  • 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

UPDATE, Monday, January 16, 2012

  • Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
  • Yo Soy Joaquin/I Am Joaquin by Rodolfo Gonzales
  • Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
  • The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea

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