NewsTaco

By Paul Adams

Last Wednesday, the Portland Trail Blazers were playing against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Well — theoretically — the whole team appeared to be mentally checked out, plodding through what would turn out to be a 121-79 drubbing. It would also turn out to be a fitting end to an era for the team, as on the following day, the Trail Blazers front office decidedly swept out the entire roster. Along with shipping out veterans Marcus Camby, Greg Oden, and Gerald Wallace, they fired head coach Nate McMillan.

In comes a young man by the name of Kaleb Canales, promoted from his assistant coach duties to interim head coach for the Blazers for the remainder of the season. He’s become famous for being the first Mexican American head coach in the NBA. Also, he’s the youngest head coach in the NBA — ever — at the ripe age of 33 Canales aims to bring in his hard-work and enthusiasm to save a buried franchise ridden by past false saviors.

Hailing from Laredo, Texas, Canales’ trajectory into the NBA began in high school, where he played varsity basketball as his team’s starting 5’11″ power forward. He then went to study sports leaderships at the University of Texas at Arlington. Though he never sniffed a college or professional basketball court as an athlete, he eventually scoured his way through the vaunted and secluded NBA threshold as an unpaid video intern for the Blazers back in 2004. Always burning that midnight oil, studying film and playbooks past his work shifts, players and staff would often find him passed out on a couch, realizing he never left the facility. With his reputation as the organization’s hardest worker spreading, he quickly gained the respect of his superiors and players alike, often even being approached by coach McMillan for advise.

By 2009, he made it to the bench, becoming the assistant head coach for the Blazers next to McMillan. Last Friday, Canales found himself willing the Blazers to a 100-89 win over the championship contending Chicago Bulls as his first official game as head coach of the team.

But beyond what may unfold for Canales and this franchise, a more significant event has superseded the menagerie of subplots that have come with Canales’ sudden grasp of this franchise. Replacing Nate McMillan last Thursday, Canales became the first Mexican-American head coach in NBA history.

Though the NBA has dabbled in Latino influence from time to time — from Puerto Rican head coach Dick Versace of the Indiana Pacers (1988-90), to rookie Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson having a maternal grandmother who was from the Dominican Republic — the striking dearth of Hispanics with professional jobs in not only the NBA, but the whole sports spectrum across the United States is baffling. Especially considering how the NBA is holding ever tighter this audience, which is making up an ever important portion of its profit-making.

Though the 2010 Census indicates that 16.3% of the U.S. population is Latino or Hispanic, passing African-Americans (12.6%) as the leading minority in the country, Kaleb Canales joins Ron Rivera (NFL head coach of the Carolina Panthers) and Ozzie Guillen (MLB manager of the Miami Marlins) as the only Hispanic head coaches in the major American sports.

But — much like the scanty Blazers franchise — perhaps Canales’ gradual but persistent ascension from unpaid video intern to NBA head coach will be a sign of things to come for the Hispanic community and their influence in the sports world.

Paul Adams is a writer who lives in Los Angeles, follow him on Twitter @Yustomovic.

[Screenshot By PortlandTrailBlazers]

By Belinda Acosta

Librotraficante Caravan: Day 3—El Paso to Mesilla and Albuquerque, New Mexico

It’s really quite amazing what a couple of laptops, three cell phones, an operational hotspot and an indefatigable spirit can do. Novelist and educator Tony Diaz may be the public voice of the Librotraficantes and their three-state caravan, but he’s the first to say he’s not the only voice. The team of Diaz, Liana Lopez, Laura Acosta, Bryan Parras and Lupe Mendez—with the aforementioned electronic equipment—has managed to negotiate logistics, organize a caravan, contact like-minded organizations in each Librotraficante Caravan stop and spread the word about the mission. The organizers’ work has drawn coverage from media outlets in each caravan stop, as well as from CNN, MSNBC, Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, and the New York Times, not to mention the Texas Observer. And the list is growing.

Hours before arriving in Tucson on March 16, Lopez was balancing her laptop on her knees updating a press release, as the Librotraficantes charter bus sped down Interstate 10. The spotty hotspot service, not to mention the occasional bump in the road, was making her task challenging. Yet, she remained upbeat, pausing to accommodate a caravan member who had come to the front of the bus to charge her cell phone. (With only three available power sources, those outlets never went unused.) Lopez’s cell phone didn’t stopped ringing. So Acosta stepped in to field calls, calmly explaining that Lopez “was tied up. How can I help you?”

In the meantime, Diaz was being interviewed by phone or writing a blog post for Mamiverse about his Librotraficante Caravan experience [mamiverse.com]. After weeks of interviews leading up to the launch of the caravan and addressing audiences in Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and Mesilla and Albuquerque, New Mexico, Diaz was losing his voice, a few hundred miles from Tucson. Mendez’s job that day was to keep Diaz quiet—no small task given Diaz’s gift for speaking extemporaneously.

During the trip, Mendez, along with Parras and the rest of the Librotraficante crew, discussed logistics. But perhaps most importantly, in terms of getting their message out, they made sure the Librotraficantes who’d joined the caravan were able to speak cogently about the events that brought them together, and expressed the value of using social media, particularly Twitter.

“This is an example of new media saving old media,” Diaz said of how harnessing Twitter and Facebook was one of the many ways the Librotraficantes connected with groups along the caravan route. The result of all this earnest, behind-the-scenes work is one of the reasons the Banned Books Bash in San Antonio, El Paso and Albuquerque were hugely successful. It was standing room only at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, for the Albuquerque Book Bash on March 15. About 500 gathered to hear readings by local writers Tony Mares, Tanaya Winder, Levi Romero and others. Earlier that day, Chicana author Denise Chávez hosted a luncheon for the Librotraficantes in Mesilla. The extraordinarily charming village is home to Chávez, where she runs the Mesilla Cultural Center and Bookstore and coordinates the Border Book Festival, now in its 17th year. [borderbookfestival.org]. She donated several boxes of books for delivery to Tucson. Fifteen percent of book sales at the Albuquerque Book Bash were donated to the Librotraficante Caravan. Gifts of books and money will be used to seed the four inaugural Librotraficante Underground libraries. The libraries will initially be stocked with titles pulled from Tucson high school classrooms when a state law precipitated the shuttering of ethnic studies programs on the grounds that they promoted hatred and division. The four Librotraficante libraries are based in Houston (MECA, Multicultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts), San Antonio (Southwest Workers’ Union), Albuquerque (Los Jardines Institute) and Tucson (John Valenzuela Youth Center.)

At each Banned Book Bash, Diaz told audiences they were now deputy Librotraficantes. People took this label to heart, as books were delivered by hand, in boxes and bags, or by cash donations. This outpouring of support created another logistical problem for the team to solve. When it came time to leave Albuquerque for Tucson, Parras and Mendez, (tasked with sorting the literary cargo) worried that there was not enough room for books and caravan members’ luggage. Some creative re-packing solved the problem. Another bump in the road averted…[Read the rest of the story here]

[Screenshot By  hightechaztec]

By Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of GALEO

Matters concerning the prosperity and future of our state and those concerning children should be absolutely void of political theatrics. Unfortunately, some Georgia legislators have opted for political theatrics by supporting SB 458, Georgia’s anti-DREAM Act, a legislative initiative that would ban access to higher education to all undocumented students at all public colleges and universities. This is a bill that solves nothing and will cause many serious problems. SB 458 will result in the bullying and intimidation of Georgia’s most precious resource: our children, specifically immigrant youth.

Currently, undocumented students in Georgia are banned from attending the five most competitive public universities in the state — including the University of Georgia. The Georgia Board of Regents passed this policy in 2010 as a result of concerns about undocumented students taking away seats from U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. The Board of Regents has stood behind this policy and firmly opposed both SB 458 and HB 59. Furthermore, the Board of Regents has confirmed that undocumented students pay out-of-state tuition, which more than fully funds students’ expenses. It should also be noted that Chancellor Huckaby stated in January that undocumented students are less than one tenth of one percent of the 318,000 students in our public universities.

Immigrant youth are not taking seats away from anyone and these students are paying more than their fair share for their education.

Georgia’s reputation as an anti-immigrant state has caused it to suffer. First, the University of Georgia’s football team lost a talented and highly sought after recruit because of its current restrictive policy. Chester Brown, a three-star, 340-pound guard from Samoa was looking forward to joining the UGA football team and had gotten a bulldog tattoo — but he could not meet the new documentation requirements imposed by the Board of Regents. Secondly, the American Education Research Association recently decided to move its 2013 conference from Atlanta to San Francisco because of our state’s new immigration law, HB 87. The conference could have attracted 15,000 educators and could have generated $25M directly from the convention and an additional $20-50M from tourism. SB 458 is a bill that would further make Georgia an outlier. Most states are moving towards in-state tuition or sticking to out-of-state tuition for undocumented students. Georgia would be one of only three states to ban all access to higher education for undocumented students, joining the ranks of Alabama and South Carolina.

The effects of this legislative proposal will do far more than restrict undocumented students from pursing higher education. We must all strive to ensure greater access to higher education for the success of our nation and our state. Governor Nathan Deal recently stated, “To have a successful future in Georgia, and remain competitive nationwide and globally, we have to have an educated workforce, and that means we need to do a better job getting people into college.” SB458, and similar measures, diminishes our state’s ability to compete in a global market and should not be tolerated.

This type of initiative shatters immigrant youth’s dreams and subjects them to further ridicule and bullying at their K-12 schools. Toying with young peoples’ lives can have devastating effects. Joaquin Luna, Jr. was a bright student from Mission, Texas. He had put all his ducks in a row to become a civil engineer. Unfortunately, he knew his options were very limited because he was undocumented. Joaquin, like many other undocumented students, had been brought to the country as an infant. On November 25, 2011, the day after Thanksgiving, consumed by grief and the realization of his undocumented status, Joaquin took his own life. The world lost a son, brother, student, classmate, friend, and future civil engineer. At a time when our nation needs to be harvesting talent in engineering and science careers, this young student took his life because of obstacles he saw as insurmountable.

In 2010, the Georgia General Assembly passed SB 250, an anti-bullying bill to protect Georgia’s most precious resource: our children. The bill promises to protect children against “any intentional written, verbal, or physical act, which a reasonable person would perceive as being intended to threaten, harass, or intimidate that…has the effect of substantially interfering with a student’s education…is so severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating or threatening educational environment.” During my recent testimony to Georgia Senators, I asked them to consider their actions very seriously and to weigh the impact it would have on immigrant youth across our state. SB 458 makes Georgia’s elected officials into bullies because of the intentional interference with an immigrant student’s ability to continue their educational progression. SB458 would rob immigrant student’s ability to see higher education as a viable option for their future. Despite the fact that we will see these immigrant youth become U.S. citizens one day with growing support for the DREAM Act, SB458 would mark Georgia in history as Alabama was marked by George Wallace blocking the entrance of a school.

Georgia’s SB 458 is an open act of bullying targeting immigrant youth. We all know the devastating effects we have seen when young people are bullied by their peers, or worse by adults. We must take a stand against this type of extreme hostility and the bullies perpetuating it— even if the bully is a Georgia State Senator Barry Loudermilk (R). Taking a stand against bullies is not always popular, but it is the right thing to do. For the sake of our immigrant children in our state, I urge you to take a stand against SB458 and urge your Georgia Senators to vote NO.

To contact your Georgia State Senator and to learn more about SB458, please follow this link.

Jerry Gonzalez is Executive Director of GALEO, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, dedicated towards greater civic engagement and leadership development of the Latino community in Georgia. 

[Photo By GALEO]

By Matt Mendez, Librotraficante.com

I am waiting for Marjorie Ann — my wife, Marlo, is seven months pregnant with her. Our soon-to-arrive daughter is named after her grandmother, my wife’s mother who died just before the start of Marlo’s senior year in high school. I never had the chance to meet her, but I’ve gotten to know her through the stories Marlo and her family tell: a free spirit who fearlessly loved her children. Yet if Marjorie’s experiences had been made into a book and taught to students of the Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program in Tucson’s Unified School District (TUSD), her story would more than likely be banned — because Marjorie was Mexican American.

On January 10 TUSD suspended the MAS program and in at least one classroom had books, written primarily by Mexican American authors, physically removed while a class was in session. In a press release TUSD explained that the books used in the former MAS program had not been banned but instead moved into storage and claimed the “stored” books were available in most of the district’s libraries. TUSD also claimed the curriculum taught in MAS will not be lost, but instead added to the general curriculum.

In 2010 93.6% of students enrolled in the MAS program graduated from high school; a comparison group had only an 82.7% rate. This gap in graduation rates has been consistent since 2005, according to TUSD’s Department of Accountability and Research. Higher graduation rates among MAS students means higher graduation rates for Mexican Americans, meaning more will be eligible for and attend college. The success of the MAS program and the changing demographics of the state, of the entire Southwest, mean that soon our governments will reflect this new and better-educated majority.

TUSD’s untenable position of inclusion by removal is the doing of current Superintendent for Public Instruction John Huppenthal, and his predecessor Tom Horne. Despite TUSD’s weak statement to the contrary, the only plausible goal of ARS 15-112 (the state law banning ethnic studies) is to target the Mexican American population in Arizona by diluting its history and delegitimizing the native voices of the state. Huppenthal and Horne seem to believe that the MAS program was creating an army of Mexican revolutionaries bent on overthrowing the government.

That works of fiction by Sandra Cisneros, Dagoberto Gilb, Manuel Muñoz and Luis Alberto Urrea (just to name a few, see entire list here) — coming-of-age stories about a young girl in Chicago and of men looking for work and love, of young men discovering their sexuality California’s picking fields and of a boy growing up in the streets of Tijuana, stories as meaningful and instructive as Marjorie’s — are somehow a threat to national security. I find it hard to believe that either Huppenthal or Horne actually believe an armed rebellion is marching their way. Instead what they really fear is demographic change. Horne, now Arizona’s attorney general, has been a hardliner against immigrants and immigration for years, accusing “illegals” of voter fraud. Neither man is working to stave off revolution, but cynically fomenting a culture of fear in Arizona.

Revealingly, neither Huppenthal (an Indiana native) nor Horne (a Canadian) are native Arizonans or from the Southwest — for that matter neither is Governor Jan Brewer (California) or Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Massachusetts).  While both men have lived in Arizona for a number of years, it is clear that neither of them has truly assimilated into the indigenous culture of Arizona. They do not, or do not want to, understand what it means to live on the border.

While I am waiting for my daughter to be born I am not waiting to make the schools she will attend better. I am working with groups like Save Ethnic Studies, UNIDOS, and the Librostraficantes to end the ban of the Mexican American Studies program and bring the books by our historians, cultural critics, and literary greats back to our classrooms. When Marjorie Ann Mendez is born I want her to live in an Arizona where she is not a second-class citizen, where her culture will proudly be represented in schools like it will be in her home. I want her to be free to learn about our heritage, our history and our stories just as freely as she will learn about her family, especially the grandmother for whom she was named.

[Image Courtesy Librotraficante]

To the mothers of children in elementary school:

At the moment, mothers with school-aged children are alarmed by the painful events in the school Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. The first thing you need to do is think coolly about what your involvement will be as parents in a terrible event.

If you are the mothers of child victims, as well as turning to the police, you need to demand and bring all legal proceedings and counseling for your children. They need to know:

• They are not guilty of what happened.
• The majority of children who suffer some type of abuse do not talk about it.
• Don’t let your kids blame victims.
• The emotional and physical damage can be repaired and soften with love and understanding of them and appropriate advice.
• That, over time, children will return to normal, and will be wiser after that bad experience.

For other mothers concerned about their children:

• Tell your children to talk in confidence with you, their parents (or the person with whom they have  the most confidence).
• Tell your children that the law protects them, however small they may be.
• Tell them they need to give the correct guidance of what they feel is appropriate, or not, for themselves.
• They can ask for advice to be trained to be better parents.

The risk of children exists in all environments, even within the family. Teaching a child to speak in an atmosphere of trust, love and protection, is the best preventive measure to protect the ones we love.  Do not get caught by the panic and helplessness, it was time to become a mother proactive.

http://youtu.be/jiqTu-inGw8

[Photo By Petr Mk]

I am not a wise old crone. I am only 27 and though I have been successful in many realms, I am disgruntled about plenty of things. I am a struggling writer. I am not a picture of late 20s perfection, by any means. But bumbling through life, I have learned helpful things that I would like to pass on. Inspired by a section in Mindy Kaling’s hilarious “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” I have compiled some tips for teenage girls, some of which I learned by doing, others by judgmentally observing.

1.) Don’t hang out with girls that are set on giving each other eating disorders. I know it can be tempting to hang out with the cool chicks, but the cool chicks are almost always dreadful. Have you seen “Mean Girls?” Please watch that as soon as you get home. Take copious notes. When you’re older, you will likely run into these cool girls while you’re visiting your old neighborhood. They will have a minimum of three children and look like life whacked them repeatedly with the stick of misfortune. You will try to be the better person and not delight in this fact — but you will fail.

2.) In general, don’t worry about being popular. If high school is your apex, I honestly don’t see the point of living. Trust me, the popular kids will be sitting at a sports bar 10 years later reminiscing about how they scored some point for some stupid game that no one even remembers anymore. They will be wearing sweat pants with the elastic at the ankles.

3.) Please stop dating losers. One day you might be a 27-year-old woman looking back on her high school dating history with mild disgust. You might wince when you think of your pony-tailed boyfriend with the horrible grammar, unforgivable penchant for Metallica, and inexplicable love of dolphins.

4.) In continuation, please don’t date older men. It might be tempting to date someone who has a mildly used Toyota Camry and can take you out to the “Red Lobster,” but this can only lead to disappointment.  Ask yourself this: what is so fundamentally wrong with these dirt bags that they have to lurk around the high school to get some? (You will learn that if you’re a reasonably okay-looking adult,  you should be able to throw a rock and hit someone who will want you.)

5.) Don’t base any of your post-high school plans on your boyfriend. Let’s be real. You will definitely break up and you will regret settling on the local community college.

6.) Don’t smoke. I know how enticing it is to look “street tough” with a cigarette dangling from your lip, but if you’re a bit vain like me, just think of all those premature wrinkles! There is certainly nothing wrong with aging naturally, but why look like beef jerky when you don’t have to? Speaking of wrinkles, I know teenagers don’t think about getting old. (I know, I know, old people are gross.)

7.) But seriously, start using a daily sunscreen. I’ve been using sunscreen since I was very young, and so far, I only have laugh lines. Those girls who tan will be really sorry. It’s all fun and games until you’re a carrot colored 30-year-old with melanoma.

8.) Don’t set your expectations about sex too high. Your body is set on doing the horizontal monster mash. Believe me,  I understand. Just know that this will likely be very disappointing. It will be like when you’re going to eat lobster for the first time but they overcook it and it’s all rubbery and bland and you leave the restaurant with your head hung low like that sad character from “Peanuts.”

9.) Also make sure your partner is equipped with prophylactics. Don’t fall for the old, “You can’t get pregnant the first time” or the old, “I don’t like the way condoms feel.” Only morons fall for this trickery. You should also discuss your stance on abortion before you have sex. If you were to get pregnant, would your partner be supportive of your decision to terminate the pregnancy? What if you would want to keep it? This conversation will surely be very unsexy, but so are babies. Also, please watch the movie “Kids.” Take copious notes.

10.) Develop a sense of humor. Believe me, there is more to life than being pretty. There is nothing better than making people laugh until they hurt themselves. A sense of humor will also help you get through life. Instead of looking up to talentless, emaciated celebrities (I’m looking at you, Megan Fox), admire smart and hilarious women like Mindy Kaling and Tina Fey. (They were weird in high school and look at them now!)

11.) Please do yourself a favor and wear really stupid outfits that you can laugh about when you’re older. I love that I thought it was cool to wear kerchiefs around my neck like Don Knotts.

12.) Lastly, cultivate your brain as much as you can. Read everything you can get a hold of. Be who you are. Be creative. Know that these are not the best years of your life.

[Photo By SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget]

All this recent Latino nerd talk — shout out to all of my brothers and sisters — got me thinking about the origins of my nerdom.

How exactly did this happen? How did I become the kind of woman who listens to podcasts about earthworms and economics? Why am I the kind of person whose heart goes aflutter when she hears Elizabethan English? Why have I memorized entire “Simpsons” episodes? I know began to read voraciously because I was a misbehaved child who was punished often. My dad’s punishments were usually very harsh — two-to-three weeks long, during which I was not allowed to go outside or watch TV. The only form of entertainment was reading, drawing, and looking out the window.

I would consume stacks and stacks of books during this time. Since the amount of Latino literature available to kids was (and still is) paltry, I escaped my reality by reading books, such as the entire collection of “The Babysitter’s Club” and all of Judy Blume. (I thought of starting my own babysitter’s club until I realized what a terrible idea that would be in the barrio.) I was also weird and moody child.  I was the kind of poindexter that would read Stephen King novels during recess. My solitude allowed my imagination to grow fecund.

At the age of 12 I decided that I was a poet. While little girls supposedly fantasized about their wedding day, I fantasized about publishing books and traveling the world. In high school I was very troubled, so I immersed myself in more literature. I thought I was Huckleberry Finn. I thought I was Holden Caulfield. I wore white dresses like Emily Dickinson. (There are pictures to prove this.) I would talk to my teachers about music because no one else I knew liked Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan. In my more ascetic phase, I also shaved my head as a rejection of materialism and  feminist refusal to be objectified. I would often shock my therapists with my knowledge of existentialist philosophy. Because I had no money and our library was pitiful, I would steal books on a weekly basis. When I was 15, instead of a quinceañera, I chose to attend a summer poetry  workshop at a nearby college.

In sum, I was a whole lot of weird and I never cared to hide it.

Now I am an adult nerd, better adjusted, but dweeby nonetheless. I am full of bizarre knowledge (ask me about the history of merkins). I am constantly cramming my brain with any information I can get ahold of because it’s as insatiable as that scary plant from “Little Shop of Horrors.” Sometimes I still dress funny and probably embarrass my boyfriend. I frequently watch documentaries about topics such as honey bees, food science, and genocide. I also just started recording a podcast with a friend because I thought the podcast scene really needed to be penetrated by more nerds of color.

Please understand that Latino nerds are doubly ostracized. We don’t fit in mainstream white culture and our Latino communities often shun us because of our bizarre ways, interests, and beliefs. Many times we’re accused of “acting white,” whatever the hell that means. We are misunderstood on several levels. So I ask that if your loved ones are Latino Urkels, please nourish them. We know we’re weird but we just can’t help it.

[Photo By freakapotomus]

By Richard G. Santos

The State of Arizona has been foremost in anti-Mexican American legislation, ordinances and rhetoric in recent years. National boycotts and the U.S. Department of Justice and even the U.S. Supreme Court have failed to normalize the Republican-controlled hate movement. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Arizona Superintendent of Public Education John Huppenthal continue to thumb their noses and wear their prejudices, intolerance and ignorance with pride.

It should be noted that Huppenthal ran for office and was elected on the promises that he would “do away with la raza.” Not surprising, within the last two weeks Huppenthal ordered the Tucson School District to suspend its Mexican American studies classes and issued a list of some 100 books to be immediately removed from its classrooms and library. Most were written by Spanish surnamed and Native American authors.

The list of banned books ranges from the ridiculous to the insane. 

Also, among the books banned from the classroom were: Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” and “Civil Disobedience” by American author H. D. Thoreau. Also removed: “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paulo Freire, the Declaration of Independence, “Cross-Examining American Ideology” by Howard Zinn, “Ten Little Indians” by Sherman Alexie and “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America” by Ronald Takaki, Sandra Cisneros’ “Women Hollering Creek” and “Curandera” by Carmen Tafolla, “Bless Me Última,” by Rodolfo Anaya and many others by non-Spanish surnamed authors and poets.

In defending their action, Cara Rene, Tucson School District Communications Director stated the books have not been banned — merely removed from the classrooms and libraries and sent to the school district’s storage facility. The books “are still available through the TUSD library system,” according to the district. The immediate reaction has been an outcry from teachers, authors, political activists and civil rights activists of diverse ethnic, racial and educational background. Moreover, politically active Latinos are boosting the Democratic party membership in Arizona and elsewhere assuring that whoever the Republican presidential candidate may be, he will not be getting the Latino vote.

It seems as if the Republican presidential candidates, not to mention state anti-Latino laws such as in Arizona and Georgia, are guaranteeing the majority of the Latino vote will go to the Democratic party. As it currently stands, the Republican presidential candidates will have done a good job of killing each other at the polls while seemingly guaranteeing the re-election of President Barack Obama. Meanwhile, for Latinos in this country, such exaggerated Republican party-generated, anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant rhetoric has had the unfortunate consequence of increasing hate crimes against people who “look” Latino.

Richard G. Santos is an international research historian and retired university professor who lives in Pearsall, Texas.

[Photo By Lalo Alcaraz]

By Nicole Cipri

In December, Arizona lawmakers passed the controversial bill known as HB2281, which banned ethnic studies in the Tuscon Unified School District. Last week, while students watched in stunned silence, teachers were forced to box up the seven books that were part of their Mexican-American Studies classes. Amongst the outlawed titles were Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which was used to teach students about race and colonialism, and Rethinking Colombus: The Next 500 Years, which included a critical essay by Tuscon resident and Pueblo writer Leslie Marmon Silko. Other titles included Critical Race Theory, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.

At a community forum, students spoke about the trauma of watching their teachers being forced to hand over the books that had been part of their curriculum. This program and its books have been denounced by Arizona politicians, such as District Attorney Tom Horne and state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal, the latter of whom actually compared the Mexican-American Studies program (MAS) to the indoctrination practiced by the Hitler Youth. Critics of MAS choose to ignore (or in Huppenthal’s case, deliberately misrepresent) the fact that students in the program have a graduation rate of 98%. Students speak passionately about finding themselves, finding a community, becoming enthusiastic about learning.

What’s the power of a word, of an idea? Already, the Tuscon Unified School District is denying that this is a “book ban,” knowing the connotations of the phrase, and has pointed out that the titles are still available to students through school libraries. To any modern, sane society, the censorship and destruction of books is an act tantamount to evil. It brings to mind images of goose-stepping Nazis and violent Red Guards in Maoist China, bonfires in which a people’s words and history go up in flames. When a people’s words become ashes, so do their collective identity; with their identity gone, eventually the people themselves follow. “Wherever they burn books,” wrote German poet Heinrich Heine, “they will also, in the end, burn people.”

In his book A Universal History of the Destruction of Books, Fernando Baez writes, “Public or private book destruction almost always takes place in alternating melancholy phases: restriction, exclusion, censure, looting, destruction.” By forcing teachers to remove these books — in a traumatizing, humiliating, and public way — the leaders of the Tuscon Unified School District, State Superintendent John Huppenthal, and state District Attorney Tom Horne, have sent a clear message: Be silent. Be obedient. Be empty, be acquiescent, be powerless, be alone.

Politicians in Arizona do not want their youth to talk about racism or oppression. In an interview with Jeff Biggers, who has been writing extensively about the ethnic studies ban for Salon.com and Huffington Post, teacher Curtis Acosta spoke about a meeting with his school administration: “What was clear is that our curriculum and pedagogy must be entirely overhauled. Which means the alterations are not only what we teach, but how we teach. No further support has been given to this point.”

The law itself is vague. It forbids “any courses or classes that: promote the overthrow of the United States government; promote resentment toward a race or class of people; are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group; advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” These programs have been shut down halfway through the academic year, with no guidelines for a replacement curriculum, only the threatening promise that these teachers will be monitored for their compliance.

In response to the ban, students in the district have been walking out in growing numbers, and a planned protest and teach-in was planned for Tuesday. A bill has already been introduced into the Arizona House to repeal the ban. Community leaders have been calling for federal court suit against the state, and for the Department of Justice to investigate Huppenthal and Horne on charges of racial profiling, hate crimes, and fraud.

Censorship is a form of violence. This law equates learning about Chicano history with promoting the overthrow of the government. It treats ethnic solidarity as treason. Arizona has become infamous in the last five years for eroding the rights ofimmigrants, undocumented people and Spanish-speaking citizens. Both Horne and Huppenthal campaigned on promises to“destroy” the ethnic studies program and “stop la raza. Arizona’s politicians talk is if they are on the front lines of a war, but a war happens for one of two reasons: a gross failure of diplomacy, or because someone, on one side or another, was spoiling for a fight.

In this case, it’s obvious which it is.

The men and women in the Arizona legislature who have enacted these bans are terrified of having a group of educated, empowered, and unified Latino youth in their state. They are so scared, they have bent the laws, lied on record, and sold their own fear and hate to their constituents. That is the power of an idea, of an education.

[Video By ThreeSonorans; Photo By steev]

The video shows a man hanging out in front of the trunk of a car filled with books you may recognize, books about Latinos, books written by Latinos. He says his name is Tony and he has a few things to say about Arizona’s ban on Mexican American studies.

The man’s name is Tony Diaz, novelist and writer originally from Chicago but now living in Houston. His organization is called Nuestra Palabra, which promotes Latino literature, literacy and culture. His mission is simple: to smuggle Latino books back into Arizona.

“In my delusion, it’s good to be thousands of us,” he told NewsTaco about his plan to organize a banned book caravan to Tucson, Arizona this March. “We’re taking all the ‘wet books’ that are illegal in Arizona back across the border.”

Of course, Diaz’s plan is accompanied by plenty of theater, but the Librotraficante Banned Book Caravan he is organizing to kick off on Sunday, March 11 — which will see the caravan of at least one bus drive from Houston to San Antonio to El Paso to New Mexico and finally to Tucson — is the real deal. Thus far, he told us there about 70 people in Houston planning to make the week-long trek, but organizers and authors in other cities in Texas, as well as New Mexico and Arizona, are piling on their own plans.

What happens when Diaz and his cohorts get to Arizona is still up in the air, he told us, but it’s likely that upon arriving in Tucson the group will celebrate literature currently banned in the state. A workshop on Mexican American studies, talking to politicians and community members, and perhaps even writing around in an ice cream truck giving out Mexican American studies books is on the agenda, he told us.

If you would like to help, donate, participate, send books, or spread the word, this is what you can do. Visit his website, watch his video, donate money, or donate your books (send to P.O. Box) check them out on Facebook or Twitter. Check out his video below, and we will update you on the group’s progress.

[Screenshot And Video By hightechaztec; ]

High school students in Tucson, Arizona walked out of their classrooms Monday in protest over the ban on Mexican American studies in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) recently. NewsTaco reader Ricardo Bracamonte shared with us his observations from the protests, and this is what he said:

My name is Ricardo Bracamonte an independent student filmmaker at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Early this morning hundreds of students from 4 schools walked out in response to the banning of Mexican-American studies two weeks ago. It seemed like there was approximately 250 students.

They left school around 9am met at Santa Rita Park and marched to Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) hand in hand. The schools averaged about 2 to 3 miles away from the park and it was about 1.5 miles to TUSD. The effort was sparked last night (Sunday) via social media.  At TUSD they listed demands to the district which included the reinstatement of MAS class, chanted and created critical dialogue among themselves. They chanted, “Sí se puede, sí si se puede” and ”When our education is under attack, what do we do? Take it back!” [And] the students also recited “In Lak’ech’” several times.

They chose to not speak to the media because of their portrayal of their interviews in the local media.  The students were peaceful and they said they plan to be proactive to regain their classes.  There were cops following one group at first and then they followed the larger group. Cops were waiting at Santa Rita and TUSD.

In response to the ban, one of the groups organizing the protests, UNIDOS, organized a “Tucson community’s School of Ethnic Studies” today. Part of the school’s mission is to allow members of the community to share why Mexican American studies is important to them, as well as to make demands: that  the ban be lifted and that  all cultures fit into the definition of “education.”

Three Sonorans also took video of the walkouts, here they are below:

[Screenshot And Videos By ThreeSonorans; ThreeSonorans]

I think I grew up within the generation that had it socially tougher than my parents, but not as easy as our children. Sure, my parents had to cross a border in the dead of night, but they never had to deal with going to elementary school as an ESL student. My parents might have been able to survive a Mexican devaluation crisis, but they never had to deal with the playground jungle.

Elementary school was the kind of environment where you kept your head above water by one of two methods: either you were the kid that came in and knocked people’s heads off, or you were that merciless kid that made fun of people until they broke down in tears and became a psychological mess.

I fell into the latter category; I was a mess of flabby dough, so the only thing I could do is rely on observational humor. I was an artist at my craft. Anyone can tell you that your mother is so fat that she fell in love and broke it. I was the kind of kid that would ask a kid if his parents considered him a regret, or just another mistake.

For the record, let me state that this demonic side was not a regular part of my repertoire, but sometimes someone would get out of place and make fun of my shoes — even though back then Nikes were a rarity, while anything off the Payless Shoe Source rack was the norm. However, if you took your Payless-wearing-behind and made fun of my Payless shoes, it was most definitely on. It was magical and profane, like watching rams in the wild lock horns for dominance – the only difference being that these rams wore shoes that came apart when exposed to rainfall.

My generation was the last generation to grow up without self-esteem or feelings. Some teachers were quick to tell you what was on their mind with flowery language filled with profane adjectives. I remember there was this one time in third grade when the teacher kicked out a student from the classroom because his sweat made him smell like a wet dog. Back then, it was rare for a parent to take the word of a child over a student.

Things are different now, for better or worse. I work at a public school and I can tell you that children no longer go after each other in an individual basis. They now rely on their packs, as they strike when their target is alone or disconnected from their own pack. As an adult, I need witnesses to back up any of my arguments. Parents have raised their kids to believe that their self-esteem is paramount — and that they are equal to any teacher, and any unsatisfactory form of discipline does not apply to them.

I am not an advocate for criminalizing youth or excommunicating students from the classroom, but I am sure that a realistic medium must exist. Self-esteem is an essential in formulating our self-worth, but we also need the instincts to adapt.  The world will not hold your hand, but it will definitely chew it off.  Maybe if some of these students realized that their moms are so dumb, they bought Cheerios thinking them to be doughnut seeds, the world would be a happier place.

[Photo By ND Strupler]

By Raul A. Reyes, otherwords.org

Ever since Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed the nation’s strictest immigration measure into law, he’s faced criticism from religious leaders and immigrant advocates.

Now Bentley himself admits that the Republican-passed HB 56 needs to be retooled. “Changes are needed to ensure that Alabama has not only the nation’s most effective law,” he recently said, “but one that is fair and just, promotes economic growth, preserves jobs for those in Alabama legally, and can be enforced effectively and without prejudice.”

In other words, the governor, along with many other Republican officials and politicians in his state, is having second thoughts about HB 56. Although a federal court has blocked some parts of the law, like a requirement that school officials check the immigration status of students, most of its provisions remain in effect. HB 56 makes it a crime for any undocumented resident to conduct business with the state or local government, and requires police to stop anyone who “appears” to be illegal.

Putting aside my concerns about possible civil rights violations, I see little evidence that the law has achieved its goal of creating jobs and promoting growth. Instead, HB 56 has resulted in what one state Republican leader termed “unintended consequences.” Let’s review the economic impact of this law on Alabama so far.

HB 56 has been a disaster for agriculture, Alabama’s No. 1 industry. Last month, The Washington Post described Alabama farmers as “in revolt” over the law. They are facing a labor crisis because migrant workers have fled the state. Farmers say they have tried to attract American workers, without success. The situation is so dire that Alabama officials are considering using work-release prisoners to fill the jobs once held by immigrants.

HB 56 has harmed Alabama’s reputation as a good place to do business. State officials were embarrassed on November 16 when a German Mercedes-Benz executive was arrested for driving without proper identification. Two weeks later, a Japanese Honda employee was ticketed amid much negative publicity. These incidents make it harder for Alabama to compete with other states to attract multinational corporations and jobs. Sheldon Day, the mayor of Thomasville, AL, says that foreign business inquiries had fallen since the law passed.

“I know the immigration issue is being used against us,” he told the Mobile Press-Register. Worse, the harsh provisions of HB 56 remind people of Alabama’s unfortunate history of racial intolerance.

Alabama’s law has also negatively affected the daily lives of legal residents. Under HB 56, anyone who applies for or renews a state license — including lawyers, hairdressers, nurses, and architects — is required to show proof of citizenship. Ditto for people getting car tags or even a license for their dog. This has resulted in long lines at courthouses and city halls, which equals lost hours of productivity and confusing red tape. How ironic, considering that Republicans often campaign against “big government” and burdensome regulations.

True, HB 56 has resulted in undocumented workers and their families leaving Alabama. Yet Bloomberg News says that the post-tornado reconstruction of Tuscaloosa has been slow because Latino construction workers vanished after the law passed. Stores and restaurants catering to Latinos have closed, depriving the state of tax revenue. Health officials have seen a drop in Hispanic patients at county clinics, putting communities at greater risk of communicable diseases and illness.

Are these social costs really worth driving undocumented workers  and their families away?

HB 56 was designed to make life hard for the state’s undocumented population. Yet tweaking its provisions will not undo the harm done to the state’s economy and image. Repealing this misguided law is the only sensible solution; Alabama can’t afford anything less.

Raul A. Reyes is an attorney and columnist in New York City.

[Photo By Ltljltlj; Illustration By NewsTaco]

An exciting report this week notes that Latinos are increasingly applying to and attending medical schools in the U.S. and in significant numbers. Since 2004 applications by Latino students to U.S. medical schools increased almost 23%, representing a 6% rise from 2010 to 2011, the Association of American Medical Colleges reported.

The numerical figure was from 3,271 to 3,459 during this period and the total medical school applications in 2011 was about 44,000. So, while the number is rising, it’s still not necessarily significant.

This is occurring at the same time the Association of American Medical Colleges is reporting that the diversity of full-time medical school faculty has not kept pace with society, specifically that in 2009 about 20% of new full professors were non-white and only about 14% of full professors continuing in their positions.

References:

• The Chicago Sun-Times