you may say that I'm a dreamer: a mestiza talks about tucson

my mother was born in mission, texas, which is a town near brownsville on the us/mexican border. it is known as "the home of the grapefruit." her parents were florinda fuente and valentin garcia.

my father was born in dallas, to a man from east texas with the last name of mabry and adriana zingotita, the woman he met in puerto rico when he was stationed there in the army.

despite my anglo-sounding last name, I am latina.

in high school english class, I loved everything I read. all novels were windows into a variety of different worlds. however, when I read assigned books such as isabel allende's the house of the spirits, gabriel garcia marquez's one hundred years of solitude, or the house on mango street by sandra cisneros something special happened. my heart understood those stories in a different way. the characters talked like my grandmother talked. the families were like my family in certain ways. they gave me fragments of a past I never knew about growing up in a middle-class, English-speaking home.
you may be following the tucson united school district's decision to ban their ethnic/mexican-american studies program. in recent weeks, representatives of the school district have removed and stored several texts, including books by sherman alexie, rudolfo anaya, luis urrea, sandra cisneros, junot diaz, and shakespeare (the tempest). the thought behind this is that mexican-american literature or native-american literature or literature having to do with culture and/or conflict is divisive and that the program is "cultish." the school board claims its actions don't amount to censorship, though what they are doing is denying young people texts that speak to them, tell their stories, and offer opposing viewpoints.
my thoughts on this are twofold:  first, it's heartbreaking to think that some people still have what equates to a colonialist mindset and have made it their agenda to "stop la raza." second thought: I'm convinced that the banning of books and elimination of the program will soon become a minor blip on the timeline of our nation's history.
while many of the authors whose books have been boxed up and stored are not authors of young adult literature, this is a  young adult issue. denying young people literature that speaks to them, brings them joy or tears, or makes them think is incredibly sad and wrong. it hurts my heart and makes me unspeakably angry when I hear elected officials say that if students of mexican descent want to learn about their culture they should "go to Mexico," as if they aren't welcome in the country of their birth.

others are hurt and outraged as well and are doing things about it. there have been protests and mass walkouts. this spring break, banned writers such as luis urrea (whose book the devil's highway is phenomenal) and sandra cisneros take part in a caravan from houston to tucson, whose mission to to "smuggle" in books and raise awareness of this issue along with libro traficante.

it's best to read this last part with the music of john lennon in your head, alright?
at the risk of sounding overly bombastic: as a people who come from diverse backgrounds, Americans sometimes find common ground with each other; sometimes we don't. literature sometimes reveals commonalities and other times sheds light on stark contrasts. what none of us should be is so threatened by someone else's history, language, or culture to the point of boxing it up and putting it in a storage facility.