Hey, I’m back. It’s only been . . . well, months. Have been struggling with getting “Buried Alive!,” John Victor’s second adventure, edited and published. It’s available–right now!–online at Create Space’s Book Store. Finally! But, before I get into that, there’s something exciting (at least for me and possibly for any of you who suffer with insomnia): Over the counter medicine, prescriptions, and the usual suggestions have all failed me. But, there’s a cure that actually works for me! Finally! My long-time friend, Erna D, told me about it on the telephone. You simply need a banana, a small saucepan and some water. Cut both ends of the banana off. (I’m not sure why, but perhaps they’re bitter?). Then place the banana–skin and all–into a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for ten minutes. Then, use the water like tea (I add lots of cream and a little sugar). Tastes great that way if, like me, you like a little bit of tea with your cream and sugar. Anyway, drink your tea that tastes slightly like banana, and eat what you can of the banana–skin and all according to Erna–but with my stomach troubles I don’t bother with the skin. I even mash the banana and add a bit to my tea. Reminds me of the consistency of extra pulp in OJ. I end up falling asleep within half an hour, instead of struggling for two or more hours.
Getting back to “Buried Alive!,” the scene is set near Tucson, Arizona. Our intrepid hero is literally buried alive in a crude cedar coffin somewhere beneath the Sonora Desert. And to make it interesting, his “coffin” is digitally connected to a live radio show. The radio host invites a bevy of professionals to communicate with John Victor, in an effort to pull elusive clues from his memory. Professionals like detectives, profilers, scientists, etc. So they can find him before it’s too late. An endangered plant is the basis for his being found. There are bits of trivia about the Tucson region, and most importantly of all, there’s information about the Bible. Between John Victor and one other character, bits of Biblical information is revealed, including info about prophesies that have actually been fulfilled–the chance for them being fulfilled is astounding–and about faith in its various forms. Like with “The SEED,” John’s first adventure, “Buried Alive!” has intrigue, humor, a touch of romance, and faith-based information. Speaking of “The SEED,” have I mentioned at least a hundred times that it was nominated by a professor for inclusion on Green Mountain College’s required reading list? And that it placed as a top-ten finalist in a national contest? Well, right now, you can find “Buried Alive” by Ann Rich Duncan by Googling Create Space Book Store. It’ll be available thru Amazon.com after April 10. By the way, the ISBN #s are: 13:978-1496055538 and 10: 1496055535. Here’s a pix of the cover:
Melinda Palacio
Melinda Palacio and Banned Book Author Elena Díaz Bjorkquist
Last week, I spoke on immigration and
Ocotillo Dreams at CSU Fresno. The generous students and faculty filled the room to capacity and later asked thoughtful questions and lined up to have their books signed. At the invitation of Dr. Cristina Herrera, I met MeCha students and saw Alex Espinoza again. Yesterday, I had the honor of being the visiting author for the Spring Arts Literary Festival at EPCC. Thanks to Rich Yañez for the warm welcome and to Pat Minjarez for her hospitality. On the road to El Paso, I stopped in Tucson to meet with Elena Díaz Bjorkquist and Rosi Andrade of Sowing the Seeds, a collective of women writers. We had chorizo, pan dulce, coffee, and discussed the banning of books in Tucson, specially
Suffer Smoke.
Elena Díaz Bjorkquist was taken aback at the idea of having her book,
Suffer Smoke, banned. The book is an important part of Chicano history. The stories record what life was like in Morenci, a copper mining town. Among her many hats, Elena was once a history teacher. "There was nothing in the book, just sharing the reality of the people who lived in the mining town in Arizona, and were taken advantage of," she said. "I wrote for myself, then for my kids. When I read at the university where I attended college, the kids related to my stories; my book needed a wider audience."
Ernest Hogan's post from on
La Bloga yesterday outlines the absurdity of banning books and banning songs, all in fear that we will take back Aztlán if we know our history. Elena Díaz Bjorkquist says she feels a sense of loss for the banning of Chicano books in Tucson Unified School District in Arizona, her home town. "These kids are are being robbed of their right to know of their heritage," she said. "Once you learn your history, you're proud."
Elena Díaz Bjorkquist wants to see a dialogue open up. Her solution to this shameful problem is communication. Part of her work with
Sowing the Seeds is to empower women through written communication. Her stories and books celebrate history. Bjorkquist would like to see TUSD free the banned books and engage in a dialogue with its community.
Here's to promoting dialogue, communication, and freedom.
****
Last week, I had the pleasure of being interviewed on KPFA by Darren de Leon, Aztec Parrot DJ on Radio 2050, before my lecture on immigration and
Ocotillo Dreams at CSU Fresno. Thank you poet Marisol Baca for hosting me in Fresno. Yesterday, I visited students at EPCC and was the visiting author for the Spring Literary Arts Festival in El Paso.
Next Stops: East L. A. Library and CSU Channel Islands
It may be cold and snowy in Colorado right now, but it seems I am thinking of warmer climates. Here’s a watercolor sketch I made this evening based on a photograph I took in Tucson. A nice spot to have some tea and read a book if you ask me.
Tucson Unified School District has a long history of failing its Mexican American students. This is true elsewhere, too, across the country. The PBS documentary "Taking Back the Schools" (below) is primarily about Mexican Americans in East Los Angeles in the 1960s.
In the 1960s, tired of being tracked into vocational classes and feeling shame for being Mexican American, students in East LA decided to go before the school board asking for changes. They did a survey of fellow students asking them what they wanted to present to the school board. They wanted bilingual instruction, Mexican American history courses, Mexican American teachers, and an end to corporal punishment. They also wanted access to college prep classes so they could go on to college.
Carmen Lomas Garza, author of
In My Family/En Mi Familia, was a young child in the schools then. In the video (at the 5:45 mark) she talks of being made fun of when she took out her lunch of tacos with frijoles, meat, and rice. It was so bad that she didn't want to take that lunch to school anymore.
Her book won the Americas Picture Book Award in 1996, and in 1997 it received the Pure Belpre Honor Award, and was listed as a Notable Book by the International Reading Association.
In 1997, her book also won the Tomas Rivera Children's Book Award, which brings us back to the present and the ban of the Mexican American Studies Department in Tucson Unified School District. Tomas Rivera's books are among those that were taught in the MAS program.
Until it was shut down in January, the Tucson MAS program was doing precisely what students wanted in 1968, and it was doing precisely what college students are been taught in teacher education courses. Use multicultural literature and teach critical thinking!
The outcome? Students did better in school, graduated at higher rates, and went on to college at higher rates than students who were not in the MAS classes. They read Matt de la Pena's
Mexican WhiteBoy.Matt de la PenaMatt de la Pena's
Mexican WhiteBoy is amongst the books that were taught in the MAS literature courses, but it is more than that... His book is mentioned on page 29 of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Kowal's decision about the program, in the section titled "Latino Literature." As such, it is evidence that the MAS program violates the law. Here's the text from that section:
Latino Literature
160. Drafts of the Pacing Guides for the MAS junior and senior Latino Literature courses demonstrate that elements of critical race theory and critical pedagogy encompass a significant portion of the course.
161. Propo
[Note: For a chronological and comprehensive list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District, go here. To go right to information about the National Mexican American Studies Teach-in, go here.]
Below is Curtis Acosta's January 26, 2012 update from Tucson. Acosta is a teacher in the now-shuttered Mexican American Studies Department in Tucson Unified School District.
 |
| Norma Gonzales |
In his letter, Acosta writes about his colleague, Norma Gonzales, and her experiences over the last few days. In addition to teaching literature at the high school level, Gonzales worked with elementary school teachers in TUSD, helping them bring Mexican American content into their teaching. She also did art projects with students at Wakefield Middle School.
On January 24th, students at Wakefield participated in a walkout. They were subsequently suspended. Rather than stay home on Thursday, January 26th, they spent the day attending Mexican American Studies classes at the University of Arizona, including Roberto Rodriguez's class. Among the speakers Rodriguez had lined up for that day was Simon J. Ortiz of Acoma Pueblo. Rodriguez has been writing about the attacks on the MAS at TUSD for some time at his blog. I
n his post on Thursday, he writes that just as his class ended that day, they learned that the suspension of the students had been lifted.
The Three Sonorans YouTube Channel uploaded a twelve-minute video of interviews with the middle school students. I'm sharing it below and urge you to watch the entire video.
Here is Acosta's letter, titled "Behind the Curtain in Tucson". He concludes with a reference to students in the video.
Thank you all for your patience this morning with the earlier message, and I hope this latest update on what my colleagues and I are experiencing in Tucson find you well.
Unfortunately, there has been little guidance and movement toward how my colleagues and I are to move forward in the development of brand new curriculum and the pedagogical changes that must be made. As I wrote to you all last week, anything from the Mexican American Studies perspective is now illegal for the former MAS teachers. We are being asked to use the district adopted textbooks as the model for how to move forward. We have been told that we can still teach about race and sensitive topics, which is contradiction to ea
David Safier, a blogger at Blog for Arizona, posted a letter Mark Stegeman (President of the Governing Board, Tucson Unified School District), sent out yesterday. It raises more questions than it answers about the Mexican American Studies (MAS) program.
To get around the fact that three of the books that were removed actually had approval for use, Stegeman now says that the curriculum itself was never approved. That may, in fact, be the case, but I hope that Stegeman is applying that curriculum approval process in an even-handed manner. Has the curriculum for all their programs been through the curriculum approval process? All along, students have been noting that it is only the MAS program that is being scrutinized. If I walked into the TUSD offices, would I be able to see a document that approved the Native American Studies program? What about the curriculum at the college prep school?
That said, there is research data that demonstrates that students who took MAS classes are succeeding in school (see data on page 44). Their attendance is better. Their grades are better. And they graduate at higher rates than students who have not taken the classes. The independent audit of the program recommended it continue.
With research that demonstrates the success of the program, it seems to me that an educational leader would say "hey, lets fast track the approval of the curriculum and make it more widely available at all the schools so more students can start doing better in school."
Instead, TUSD voted to end the program rather than fight the political machine in Arizona. As he says in his letter, they're going to revise the social studies core curriculum, making sure that Mexican American history and culture will be covered. This time, he says, they "want to get it right."
Based on everything I've learned about him, I'm doubtful that they will ever "get it right." At the end of his letter, he says developing this core curriculum will be a long process and that he does not expect it to happen any time soon. Again, with research based evidence that demonstrates the success of the program, it seems to me that it would be smart to use the MAS curriculum as the core.
January 22, 2012
Dear friends and correspondents,
Because of the recent media attention on TUSD’s “book ban,” it seems useful to clarify that situation. TUSD also issued a press release on this subject several days ago, which is posted on the district website.
Every district in the state approves curriculum according to a process guided by statute and local policy, and approving the books to be used is part of that process. Through such processes a typical district might approve several hundred books for use in instruction. This leaves millions of books not approved for instruction; it would be silly to say that all of those books are “banned.”
When the TUSD board voted (4-1) to end the Mexican-American Studies (MAS) curriculum, ending use of the books had to be part of that package. Staff says that the seven titles removed from classrooms and placed into storage are still available in school libraries, and I
Today (Sunday, January 22, 2012), one of CNN's bloggers covered the banning of the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson. Stephanie Siek (the reporter) talked to Barbara Jones:
Barbara Jones, director of the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, said the removal of the books was a big topic of discussion at the association’s 2012 midwinter meeting, which began last Thursday in Dallas. Groups including REFORMA, the Latino librarians' group, the American Indian Librarians' Association and the Intellectual Freedom Committee planned to respond and a coalition of civil liberties groups were researching possible legal action and expecting to release a statement this week, Jones said.
Regardless of the words the district used, Jones said, it's actions restricted access to books, which leads to censorship.
"We're gathering facts. Right now it looks like it's just the curriculum that’s affected and not school libraries," Jones said. "But we know from experience this will eventually affect books in the library."
Siek writes:
District leaders said they aren't banning the books, but have removed them from classrooms while their content is evaluated.
While their content is evaluated?! I thought the contents had already been evaluated and found to be guilty of "promoting resentment of a class of people"!
And yet, Siek writes, Stegeman (President of the TUSD governing board) said that the books might be brought back into the classroom after a review, and that the review might be completed by the end of the summer!
Isn't that contradictory? Did the books get reviewed or not? Is someone going to change his or her mind and decide that the content of the books does not "promote resentment of a class of people"???For a video and more details, see
How Tucson Schools Changed after Mexican American Studies Ban.
On January 21, 2012, the Progressive Library Guild issued the following statement on Censorship and the Tucson Unified School District. Kudos to the Guild for this outstanding and well-researched statement.
PLG Statement onCensorship and the Tucson Unified School District
Recentmedia reports regarding the mass removal of books from classrooms inthe TucsonUnified School District (TUSD) demand a response from librarians,charged byour professional ethics to oppose censorship and restriction oninformation.
Afterreviewing publicly available materials documenting the process leadingup tothis TUSD action, the Progressive Librarians Guild believes a challengeshouldbe issued regarding not only the onerous situation, but the politicsunderlyingthe decision to cut District’s Mexican American Studies program (MAS)program.
At issue isthe supposed violation by TUSD of Arizona state law prohibiting classesinpublic or charter schools from instructions that:
1. Promotethe overthrow of the United States Government
2. Promoteresentment toward a race or class of people
3. Aredesigned primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
4. Advocateethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.
A.R.S.§15-112
The booksin question include the following titles used in conjunction withcoursestaught throughout the TUSD as part of the District’s MAS program:
Critical Race Theory by Richard Delgado
500 Years of Chicano History inPictures edited by ElizabethMartinez
Message to AZTLAN by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales
Chicano! The History of the MexicanCivil Rights Movement byArturo Rosales
Occupied America: A History ofChican
I may not make much sense here. This is a raw feed from the crisis zone. The dust has not settled, and we have a lot of dust here in Arizona.
The night before the shootings in Tucson, at the place where I work, someone had written the ever-popular “F.U.” all over the men’s room. I wasn’t surprised. I had been sensing a lot of undifferentiated hostility among the customers. I had also seen it on the streets of Phoenix.
Something was in the air. Not a recognized scientific phenomenon.
I was shocked when I heard about the shootings, but not surprised. Ever since Spring of last year, with the news about SB 1070, things have been building up in Arizona. Somebody was going to get shot sooner or later.
Jared Lee Loughner had no racial/ethnic agenda. His is a paranoid/schizophrenic fixation on grammar. “What is the government if words have no meaning?” Not quite up there with William Burroughs’ “Language is a virus from outer space.” We lucked out, we got a Latino hero saving Gabrielle Gifford’s life instead of a backlash.
By:
Garden Painter Art,
on 5/4/2009
Blog:
Garden Painter Art
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Okay....the contest give-away is officially over.
To everyone who commented, I want to say "Thank You". I am so happy to see that there are folks out there that would like to win one of my art prints.
I will count up the comments, instruct Junior of his responsibilities as Master Of Ceremonies, and have a winner posted tomorrow afternoon.
Again, thanks ever so much for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Until Tomorrow:
Kim
Garden Painter Art
By:
Garden Painter Art,
on 5/2/2009
Blog:
Garden Painter Art
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Good Morning:
I hope this entry finds you all well and ready for a lovely weekend.
This morning is the beginning of another weekend contest, ending on Monday, May 4 at 5:00 p.m. pst. All you need to do is post a comment. Then, I will count the amount of comments, write the numbers down on little pieces of paper, and drop them on the floor. The piece of paper that Junior (my not so intelligent Miniature Schnauzer) touches with his paw first will be the winning number.
The winner will receive this:
It is a print of my original watercolor/collage entitled "Ghostly Gert's Tucson Patio Party". The image size measures 4" x 6" and there is a small white border about the image. This particular piece is one of my "story collages". It is a ghost story that goes like this:
"Here we have poor little Ghostly Gert, revisiting the most exciting yet tragic day of her life. Oh the happenings on that lovely desert patio. It was August 13, 1910, a sweltering hot day in Tucson, Arizona. It was Gert's 11th birthday and she was having a big party. Hundreds of friends and family members were swarming in. The food was delicious and the cake, oh the cake. It was 4 layers high. It was such an extravagent party. Everyone was laughing and dancing. Gert and the other children were playing games. Hopscotch, Tag, Croquet. Then, before it could be stopped, tragedy struck..."
Now, you get to fill in the blank. The end of the story belongs to you.
Enjoy:
Kim
Garden Painter Art
I agree with Elena. What a brave soul she is to keep fighting to free the books in Tucson. This whole situation is emblematic of the conservative movement's attempts to take our country backward, to deny us rights that were hard-fought. The perpetrators of this banning cry out to protect our "First Amendment" frequently, except when it's other people's First Amendment rights that they're taking away. Sad and shameful. Thanks for this post, Melinda.