APACHE JUNCTION, Feb. 25 -
The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution supporting the efforts of the Librotraficante Caravan, which is bringing contraband books — or “wet-books” — to Arizona. The project is also intended to raise awareness of the “prohibition” of the Mexican-American Studies Program and the removal of books from classrooms.
As Colorlines noted:
“When we heard that Tucson Unified School District administrators not only prohibited Mexican-American Studies, but then walked into classrooms, and in front of young Latino students, during class time, removed and boxed up books by our most beloved authors - that was too much. This offended us down to our soul. We had to respond,” said Tony Diaz, founder of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, which has led the charge.
Diaz added, “With their record of anti-immigrant legislation, politicians in Arizona have become experts in making humans illegal. We did not do enough to stop that, thus that anti-immigrant legislation spread to other states such as Alabama and Georgia. Now, these same legislators want to make thoughts illegal. If we allow this to happen, these laws, too, will spread. Other branches of ethnic studies will be prohibited, and other states will follow suit.”
The Librotraficante Caravan will travel from Houston, Texas, to Tucson, Ariz., carrying a payload of contraband books, creating networks of Underground Libraries and leaving community resources in its wake.
With just days away from launching the caravan Libroficante could use your help...donations are critical.
"We urge everyone -- both Arizonans and normal people concerned with government censorship of ethnic studies and ethnic literature -- to support the work of the Librotraficante Caravan," said Pinal County Greens co-chair Richard Grayson, who has taught classes in multicultural and immigrant literature at several colleges in Florida and New York.
"These 'forbidden' books -- such as Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which I first read decades ago in a class at Teachers College at Columbia University -- should be required reading for some of our ignorant state officials."
For information on how you can make a tax-deductible donation, please visit the Librotraficante Caravan website.
