Latino VoicesLatino Politics Mexican American studies banEducation

Banned Mexican American Studies Program Profiled By PBS In New Documentary (VIDEO)

Banned Mexican American Studies Program Profiled By PBS
Open Image Modal
By 

National Reporter, HuffPost

Watch 2/15/2013: Banned in Arizona on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

Mexican American Studies in Tucson may be banned, but it's not dead.

PBS "Need To Know" traveled to Tucson to report on the controversial ethnic studies banned by the Arizona legislature over allegations that the teachers were politicizing the students. Opening with a scene of teacher Curtis Acosta holding a Mexican American Studies class off campus for a handful of students, the 25-minute documentary tells the story of how the program developed and why the Arizona legislature went after it.

The future of the curriculum remains unclear. A federal court ordered Tucson this month to include "culturally relevant" course material for its Latino students, but the law targeting Tucson's suspended Mexican American Studies courses remains on the books. In the PBS documentary, Attorney General Tom Horne, one of the driving forces behind the Mexican American Studies ban, called the court's decision "wrong," "perverse" and "evil."

If you aren't yet familiar with the story or you want more information, sit back and checkout the excellent documentary above. Visit the "Need To Know" website for more information on the report.

Our 2024 Coverage Needs You

As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.

Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.

to keep our news free for all.

Support HuffPost

Before You Go

Latino Books Once Banned In Arizona
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, by Rodolfo Acuña(01 of07)
Open Image Modal
The most successful book written by professor Rodolfo Acuña, "Occupied America" represents all that Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne opposed in the Mexican-American Studies program when he launched the attack against it. Horne viewed the curriculum as separatist and ethnically divisive. HB 2281, the law used to ban TUSD's Mexican American Studies program, prohibits courses that "promote the overthrow of the United States government" or "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group." "These people think you're a separatist if you want to teach and include people," Acuña told the Los Angeles Times in 2011. "I don't want to be part of Mexico ... That's a stupid thing to argue." (credit:Pearson)
500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, compiled by Elizabeth Martinez(02 of07)
Open Image Modal
This compilation tells the story of Chicano history from before the European conquest of North America, through colonization and into the present day. The book describes the Southwest as "Occupied America" -- a term that Arizona conservatives often view as unjust and disparaging. Actor Edward James Olmos felt differently: "If young people read this book, they will be strong and proud in new ways," he said on the dust jacket to the 1990 edition. "It's a real education, in the true sense of that word." (credit:Southwest Community Resources)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire(03 of07)
Open Image Modal
This seminal work by Brazilian education professor Paulo Freire argued that students learn best when treated as equals and engaged on their own terms. Freire argues against the "banking model" of education, in which teachers treat students as passive recipients of knowledge. His work is studied by education specialists throughout the hemisphere.In a 2012 interview, Arizona Superintendent of Education John Huppenthal explained why he viewed the book as problematic:
The title of Paulo Freire's book is 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed,' and so the question is, who is the oppressed? And as we looked at what was going on in the classroom and looked at what was in the materials, we saw they were putting together a Marxian model in the classroom in which the oppressed are the Hispanic students and the oppressors are the white Caucasian power structure. We came to the conclusion that it wasn't O.K. to be preaching that model in the classroom.
 (credit:Continuum)
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, by Bill Bigelow(04 of07)
Open Image Modal
A collection of essays, interviews, lesson plans and other materials, Rethinking Columbus aims to change the way students understand the first interactions between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Europeans. One contributing author, Tucson's own Leslie Silko, boasts a Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award and a MacArthur Foundation genius grant. (credit:Rethinking Schools Ltd.)
Critical Race Theory, by Richard Delgado(05 of07)
Open Image Modal
The academic field of critical race theory challenges traditional ways of looking at race and racism. The field's theoreticians argue that supposedly neutral concepts and institutions, like meritocracy or the legal system, mask systemic inequality and institutionalized racism. Richard Delgado's books is one of the discipline's classics. Some conservatives view critical race theory as "dangerous" because some of its proponents view the Constitution and the fabric of American democracy as imbued with racism. During the course of several interviews in 2012, Julio Cammarota, a professor of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona, "You can see the problem, can't you? One side doesn't want to talk about race, the other side wants to talk about race all the time." (credit:NYU Press)
Message to Aztlán: Selected Writings of Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzalez(06 of07)
Open Image Modal
The term "Aztlán" refers to the mythic homeland of the Nahua of Central Mexico. Intellectuals of the Chicano movement adopted the term to describe the southwestern United States. Mexican-American Studies teachers at Tucson Unified School District taught those concepts with books like this one, by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzalez, a writer and political activist who helped found the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. (credit:Arte Publico Press)
Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, by Arturo Rosales(07 of07)
Open Image Modal
This well-regarded study of the Chicano movement serves as a companion to the 1996 PBS documentary of the same name. (credit:Arte Publico Press)
Suggest a correction
|
Submit a tip