What I remember most about the UNIDOS action that took place on April 26, 2011 is how fast it happened. That and the face of the Tucson Unified School District police officer as he tried to keep Leilani Clark from sitting down with the eight other students who took over the school board meeting that evening.
Tucson attorney Isabel Garcia stood on the other side of the dais and shouted, “Don’t touch her. Don’t you touch her.” The officer let go, and Clark and the rest of the students proceeded to reach under their T-shirts to pull out the chains and locks they used to chain themselves to the board member’s chairs and to each other.
That image—students rushing to the dais as if out of nowhere to shut down a vote on a measure proposed by board member Mark Stegeman that was intended to change the status of Mexican-American studies classes and make them electives—brought the MAS fight to a national audience.
The next school board meeting had a world of heartbreaking images of its own, but it was clear that the community had the students’ and the MAS movement’s back. Hundreds showed up that evening and so did more than 100 Tucson Police Department officers, some dressed in full riot gear. Seven women were arrested during the call to audience inside the board room. And outside, TPD officers were accused of grabbing and tossing as well as hitting protesters who surrounded the TUSD administration complex.
This was the meeting that introduced metal detectors to TUSD headquarters and limited the number of people who could attend the board meetings. It also provided that classic image of revered educator and activist Guadalupe Castillo being escorted from the room by police after she stood up to read Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
Old news, right? Not really. It’s history. Tucson’s history. MAS history.
But now, more than two years later, the next history lesson is shaping up to be about the lines drawn by different members of Tucson’s Chicano community. There are fractured friendships, and even family members who no longer talk to each other. There have been deep lessons about effective organizing—or the lack of it—and people once thought of as leaders who may never be taken seriously again.
It’s obvious that there is something wrong now, and some are asking whatever happened to “in lak ech” and “panche be.”
In lak ech (you are my other self) and panche be (to seek the root of truth) are Mayan concepts taught in TUSD’s original MAS classes through a Luis Valdez poem students recited at the start of each class:
Tú eres mi otro yo/You are my other me.
Si te hago daño a ti/If I do harm to you,
Me hago daño a mí mismo/I do harm to myself;
Si te amo y respeto/If I love and respect you,
Me amo y respeto yo/I love and respect myself.
Then there’s the other elephant in the room—what happened to the MAS movement? What happened to those students who packed that April 26, 2011 board meeting? What happened to the community members who packed the May 3, 2011 meeting despite the police presence?
History Repeats Itself
It would be simplistic to say that what is going on right now in the Chicano community is just history repeating itself, but what happened to Anna Nieto Gomez during the Chicano movement in the mid-1970s easily comes to mind. She was denied tenure at California State University, Northridge, when Chicano writer and scholar Rudy Acuña was head of the Chicano studies department. That incident helped create a focus on Chicana rights and works, and called attention to the misogyny that exists in the movement.
No, what’s happening in Tucson isn’t anything new, says Devon Peña, a National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) past board member and an anthropology professor at the University of Washington.
It’s important for the Chicano community to address misogyny and the gender violence that often comes with it. That’s part of what Peña and his colleague Michelle Tellez were thinking when they wrote a letter dated Dec. 11, 2011, to Save Ethnic Studies in Tucson. It was also reportedly sent to those associated with the documentary Precious Knowledge.
The documentary is about a year in the life of a group of Tucson Magnet High School students in MAS studies classes and how the classes transformed their lives. The movie has been screened at hundreds of college campuses since it premiered in Tucson at the Fox Theatre in March 2011. The film is still being shown, often accompanied by talks that include some of the students featured in the documentary as well as MAS teachers.
In their letter, Peña and Tellez asked that SES, the fundraising arm for the federal lawsuit filed by the MAS teachers in effort to have the anti-Mexican-American studies law declared unconstitutional, and local community activists investigate allegations of sexual harassment and assault by one of the documentary’s filmmakers. The letter also made it clear that there needed to be more support given to one of the alleged victims, and three other women who made harassment claims.
“While it is our understanding that no legal actions have been undertaken and none of the declarants has filed a police report, we are uneasy and actually shocked that this matter has not been given more attention by supporters of the program, including the SES community.”
“We are also troubled by reports of the response to these allegations, which have included endless demeaning innuendos and allegations against the purported victim of the assault, who has been characterized by some, including members of SES, as promiscuous and mendacious. Such responses often constitute unacceptable expressions of sexist and patriarchal attitudes. We expect our community of activists to know better than to embrace or tolerate attacks on the character of a victim of sexual violence.”
So what was the response to the letter?
Peña recently told the Weekly that the NACCS board refused to speak out more on the subject after it received a letter from an attorney representing the documentary’s filmmakers. At that point, Peña and Tellez were told to lay low and see what took place next.
But what took place next wasn’t what Peña had hoped for. The Tucson community never addressed or investigated what took place or tried to shed “light on the alleged events.” Instead, copies of the letter co-authored by Peña and other correspondence between NACCs and others in Tucson, made their way around the community.
“If this were to become public,” I was told by a MAS supporter not long ago, “this will damage the movement.”
Another letter began circulating not long after Peña and Tellez original Dec. 2011 letter from three women featured in the documentary that charge that the allegations are false and that the NACCS board has “spread unfounded allegation causing extensive damage to the careers and reputations of the filmmakers. … Three out of the four ‘victims’ of sexual harassment have disclosed to us that they were not sexually harassed in March of 2011 … We have been unable to speak directly to the fourth woman but have plans to do so. … We have done extensive research about the woman who claims we was assaulted and due to the multiple versions of the story that she has personally told us, combined with evidence from the evening in question, we have concluded that she is spreading false allegations with a vengeful intent.”
The Weekly first contacted the filmmakers last year. They responded, but asked that it be off record. They did not respond to our latest request for comment.
Blame it on the women
When former MAS director and teacher Sean Arce faced domestic violence charges last winter, the strongest reaction came from a collective calling itself malintZINE. But those early entries on its website, reactions to gender and gender violence issues surrounding the MAS community in Tucson, were not just about Arce. It was as if there had been issues building up the past two years, and women finally got together and said enough.
Kim Dominguez, a former MAS student and program director of the Social Justice and Education Project, or SJEP, in the UA’s MAS department, says it’s easy for people to focus on the division that exists in the community right now rather than address issues, or even acknowledge that malintZINE is not separate from the Chicano movement.
“It isn’t separate. That’s what critics want you to think. No, it’s part of the movement. It’s telling an important story of what is taking place right now in the movement,” Dominguez says. She is one of several women who helped start the collective, which describes itself as a “community made up of radical mujeres, some of color and some queer, based in Tucson.”
Other issues that may have led to the creation of malintZINE center on the summer of 2012, dubbed Tucson Freedom Summer by organizers who brought in volunteers from all over the country with the purpose of organizing more support around MAS. Rather than build that support, however, women met at the end of the summer to discuss gender and gender violence issues that allegedly occurred—mostly complaints from women volunteers who felt they weren’t given enough work or better work assignments. Other women complained of unwarranted advances and said that alcohol played a huge role in creating a hostile environment for women.
Often, what has been written about allegations surrounding Precious Knowledge has only fueled divisions, and there’s a perception that those who wanted to talk about it were silenced.
“When people started to hear about the (allegations) … it was obvious that people were scared this would affect the movement,” Dominguez says. “I remember feeling the same way. But as more began to happen in the community, misogyny and gender violence finally needed to be discussed—not silenced.”
Wounded warrior
At a coffee house off Campbell Avenue, Leilani Clark takes out a stack of journals of all sizes. These have helped her cope, she says, as well as document what has happened from the time of the alleged assault to today. On their pages are details about the loss of friendships with those whom she protested with against Arizona’s SB 1070, the “papers please” law that profiles undocumented immigrants, and HB 2281, the law state Attorney General Tom Horne championed that made Mexican-American studies illegal.
Clark says she eventually left the country because she felt ostracized by friends and people she looked up to, especially the MAS teachers.
“I left in December 2011 … I finally felt so disconnected from the Tucson community,” Clark says.
Yet Clark was touted as a warrior in the immigration and MAS movements. There’s an image of Clark, chained on the steps of the Arizona Capitol building, protesting SB1070, that fueled that image.
“People know me around the community,” she says.
The first version of Precious Knowledge, which premiered in Tucson in March 2011, showed that warrior Clark had become known as. But when the film recently premiered on PBS, Clark was noticeably absent from the documentary.
In an interview with the Weekly, Clark said she received emails from people who used to be her friends accusing her of concocting a story, or telling her that she needed to move on. There were also accusations that she had a drinking problem, that she was promiscuous and that she dressed provocatively. Clark also remembers being scared that if the allegations came out, she would be blamed for potentially discrediting the April 2011 action as well as the movement that had been built up around the sole purpose of saving MAS.
Last September, rumors of Clark’s return to Tucson surfaced, coinciding with an October screening of Precious Knowledge at the John Valenzuela Youth Center. Rumors spread that Clark and others were planning a protest to prevent the screening. Organizers of the screening told the Weekly at the time that they were being pressured to not show the documentary. Others told the Weekly that an agreement had been in place that was supposed to prevent the documentary from being screened in Tucson because of the allegations.
The screening was canceled, but Clark says there was never a protest planned. She was focused on trying to get on with her life and continue with counseling. She had also decided at the time to remain silent until she felt ready.
However, Clark says it was the creation of the malintZINE collective that motivated her to break her silence, especially because many of the stories and poems in the online magazine centered on gender violence.
At a March 8 community accountability forum hosted by malintZINE at a packed community room at the John Valenzuela Youth Center, discussion of gender violence and accountability was front and center. Clark stood up and read a statement and it was obvious there was no turning back—the silence had been broken. It was also the day of US District Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima’s ruling on the teacher’s lawsuit. Wallace didn’t rule on behalf of the teachers and a legal team in Seattle is working on an appeal.
“I always had the idea that I wanted to get my story out there. When I came back and found out matlinZINE was established, I had talked with Kim (Dominguez). It felt good,” she says.
“I was completely vilified. When this came up, people were saying this happened because of my problems with alcohol. When I got back, I learned that alcohol problems in the community for other people had never been addressed. They were not vilified. No one said to them they had to check their behavior.”
Other statements
After Clark spoke at the forum, Roberto Rodriguez, a MAS associate professor at the UA wrote an essay, “In Tucson, the sky has not fallen,” which is about Clark, as well as a criticism of the MAS movement. A few days later malintZINE published an essay on the controversy titled, “Girl Code, Responsibility, Accountability and In Lak Ech,” an account of what happened through the eyes of a friend Clark lost, then regained when she returned.
Peña once again came forward, but instead of writing another letter, he posted an essay on his blog, mexmigration: History and Politics of Mexican Immigration. The post, titled “Arizona Update: Beyond 2281,” went viral, Peña says.
It included his essay, as well as the essay from malintZINE and the one from Rodriguez.
“All social movements suffer setbacks, challenges, and—often—internalized friction and conflicts. This is part of the history of social movements and not at all unusual,” Peña wrote in an introduction to the post. “This is also the case with the movement to defend MAS in Arizona and I am presenting four documents to illustrate what some of the current challenges involve. This is done in the spirit of journalistic reporting. These statements do not at the time reflect the official policies or positions of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) or any other organizations with which I am affiliated. NACCS is not responsible or aware that I am making this series of documents available to the public in one place. The three documents that follow my statement are already available to the public at other sites.”
Peña also added, “As an academic scholar and teacher I have a right to express my views on matters of existing public interest and indeed under the law I am required as an educator to share and report on my knowledge of any incident of sexual abuse or violence.”
In the post, Peña discusses what happened in response to the December 2011 letter he co-authored and how he believes the issues brought up with SES and others in Tucson were never handled properly,
“I personally have felt a lingering deep sense of frustration and disgust at how we were all targeted by abuse and threats; we were silenced for so long. I am very disappointed by the Arizona-based men—activists and professionals who have done a lot to advance the movement for social justice and civil rights but when it comes to sexual violence against women retreat into a retrograde old-school posture that threatens our movement,” Peña wrote.
“I want to be clear to them: You accused NACCS, Michelle, and myself of betrayal and endangering the movement. It is you, with your reckless and feckless macho attitude and failure to stand in solidarity with the very students you purport to support and defend; you are responsible for undermining the movement and allowing hate-filled right wingers to use this (alleged) rape and the response to it as a weapon against a legitimate campaign to save ethnic studies in Arizona and elsewhere across these states of exception and institutionalized violence.”
Peña says that since that post was published on his blog with its supporting documents, there has been no letter asking for it to be taken down or further threats of legal action. But the idea that the controversy over the alleged incidents has led to divisions in the community troubles him.
“Get over it,” he says. “Let’s not forget the source of the problem of HB 2281, white-supremecist lawmakers.”
In a follow-up email from Peña, the professor wrote that what needs to happen now locally and nationally, is a focus on the defense and development of the culturally relevant curriculum making its way through the TUSD school board. And making sure it’s taught by teachers who understand the curriculum
“This means that the curriculum at all levels of instruction needs to address the history of and struggle against structural violence including sexual violence. It also needs to address environmental and food justice issues more directly, the way I see it,” Peña says.
“As higher education teachers we are required by law to report such incidents and that is why we (Michelle Tellez and I) wrote the letter to call for an investigation,” he wrote.
Those early threats from the filmmakers’ attorney ended up not keeping Peña silent. What it did do, he said is force a painful shift in strategy, which led to his mexmigrantion blog post that went viral.
“We should now focus on strengthening the struggles (for MAS) and against sexual violence (including domestic abuse) and stop feeding fodder to the right-wing partisans who seek to destroy the good works built by the teachers and students in Tucson and everywhere else we teach and study Chicana/o Studies,” he wrote.
“It is a grand enterprise worthy of respect and celebration.”
Next steps back to MAS
Tuesday, July 9 was H.T. Sanchez’s first TUSD governing board meeting as the district’s new superintendent, and it also may have signaled a new strategy by the district. Rather than talk about fighting different facets of the court-mandated desegregation plan, Sanchez admitted that the district was out of compliance with the current plan.
Right now, while the teacher lawsuit is appealed by a legal team in Seattle, the only way any form of MAS returns to TUSD classrooms is through the ongoing desegregation plan mandated by federal court. The plan calls for the development of a district-wide multicultural curriculum as well high-school level culturally relevant classes on Mexican-American and African-American literature, social studies and history.
Augustine Romero, director of TUSD’s multicultural education department, presented three Culturally Relevant Curriculum (CRC) classes to the board for approval, including a Chicano literature class. The board approved the classes in a 3-2 vote, with Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks voting no.
Romero explained to the board that the classes were developed in four months and reviewed by 37 experts from 22 different institutions—all experts in CRC and urban education. “The unitary status plan (deseg) mandates we create CRC curriculum and we were asked to review it through that lens … we did just that,” he told the board.
Sanchez said the district isn’t where it should be in the CRC development, but the classes approved will be offered at three high school in the upcoming school year. And “in the spirit of knowledge,” any student who wants to take the classes will be provided transportation to the high school where they are taught.
Romero told the Weekly recently that the overtures from the superintendent and the fact that TUSD now has a board majority that supports MAS and CRC—Cam Juarez, Kristel Foster and Adelita Grijalva—means that the CRC classes won’t replace the MAS classes dismantled by the district last year. No, he says, the classes will be better.
Former MAS teachers were involved in helping to put the curriculum together. The teachers who helped out included Maria Federico Brummer, Sally Rusk, Yolanda Sotelo, and Norma and Jose Gonzalez. Romero contends that all the former MAS teachers were offered positions to return to teach CRC classes in the fall.
“I did extend the opportunity to all (the past MAS teachers) to return to do the work. After all, if we are truly about what we say we are about, and the opportunity was given to do that work—jump on or jump off—only one of them decided to jump on,” Romero says.
That teacher joining Romero’s team this year is Maria Federico Brummer.
The Weekly tried to reach former MAS teacher Curtis Acosta and other teachers, as well as the teachers’ attorney, Richard Martinez, but heard back only from Sally Rusk, who teaches at Pueblo Magnet High School. Rusk says it’s difficult to talk about everything that’s taken place this past year because “everything is so fraught with hard feelings and frustration with what happened and how TUSD has been handling the deseg order for the classes,” she wrote in an email.
Rusk says the teachers did start to work on the curriculum with Romero, but it was hard to create something different, or at least something that appeared to be different.
“And then I chose not to continue because of being busy and because of mixed messages and … comments and decisions that I thought lacked integrity … discussions I found troubling. I feel uncomfortable talking about others, especially in this situation,” Rusk says.
And from her point of view, not everyone from the former MAS classes was offered positions. Yet still, Rusk has a positive feeling about the beginning of the school year and the CRC classes. She says she feels that kids at Pueblo will be in a good position when school starts.
“We are lucky to have a young woman whose dream is to teach the American history from Mexican-American perspectives class, and she student-taught with me for the American government SJEP class and did a wonderful job. Honestly, I wish I felt comfortable going back to teach my favorite classes, and if I was told to do so, I would,” Rusk says.
There have been criticisms that what the CRC offers in the desegregation plan will not come close to replacing the beloved MAS targeted by the state. Romero says it’s true the classes are not the same—that they are not replacements for what the district once had. Romero says the classes are actually better.
“We need, want and should do better than what we had before,” he says. “In terms of what the haters say, really? I’ve heard that I don’t know anything about the curriculum, yet that’s what I did when I first started working in the MAS department. That was my first role and that is the main reason I was recognized for the role I have now.”
Romero says he’s gotten a lot of flack for saying these new classes are better, but he thinks that, combined with the other parts of the desegregation plan, the CRC classes can produce better outcomes for the students they are targeting.
Romero says he’s disappointed that more of the former teachers won’t be involved. He also wishes they would be involved in helping to train new teachers to understand why this is important.
Responding to criticism of his efforts, Romero says he’s used to the haters. Last year, the Weekly did a story on the split that occurred between Romero and the MAS teachers. Arce lost his position in the district, but Romero kept his and said he’d continue working for the district even though his fellow MAS teachers thought he should consider resigning in protest. He faced a lot of criticism from the teachers he thought he was once close to and people in the community who decided it was fair to label him a vendido or a sellout.
“I told you back then and I’ll say it now, I am not the enemy of any of those people. At the time I thought we were friends and I was willing to still operate as a friend and willing to have a dialogue. I asked to constantly meet with them, but I was told to constantly fuck off,” Romero says.
Of course if Martinez had won the lawsuit, everything would have been different, with or without the desegregation plan. But that didn’t happen, Romero says. Instead, a character assassination began not long after Tashima’s March 8 ruling and he was still considered an enemy, as well as Sylvia Campoy, the Mendoza plaintiff representative in the desegregation lawsuit for Latino students. Other enemies, it was decided, were school board members Foster, Juarez and Grijalva, Romero says.
“It’s never really hurt me, but it does hurt my wife and kids. Some of us weren’t just friends, but we were also family.”
Does Romero think the community has learned any lessons?
“No. Mistakes that were made in this movement were the same mistakes made previously. And the issues being brought up about gender violence are real issues. The idea of silencing … for all intents and purposes, I will say this: One of the things we need to learn is that there is no (single) strategy … we need to learn to embrace ideas that come from different places, come from different perspectives, come from different realities, different angles. There should never be one holy voice,” Romero says.
Making other people in the movement into enemies is only divisive, he said.
“Somehow in this movement, embracing other perspectives was lost.”
Romero says now he wants to ask what has happened to in lak ech?
“Was it in theory only or were we really living it,” he says. “If you are my other me and I’m your other you—what gives?”
This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2013.
This is precisely my question to you, Ms. Herrera, what happened to in lak ech and panche be in the context of this vicious and assumptious article you have pieced together?
wow… terrible story, I’m sorry, I’m very disappointed in this last section. How can you interview only one person (the person that went over to the District), not interview any teachers in MAS (except the EMAIL from Sally Rusk) who are the victims of the Institutionalized racism, give only him the last word, and call this journalism? The in la kesh concept is corrupted here. Why wasn’t Augie asked if he’s practiced In La Kesh when he went over to the District??? In short, WE CANNNOT DENY that the RACIST REPUBLICANS GOT US REAL GOOD, their plan worked effectively: divide and conquer. Like Huppenthal stated in that right wing tv interview, they stretched out the community leaders and took people out. But WE also had our hand in our fall. We must learn from mistakes, ALL mistakes, and we must evaluate ourselves coherently. At this moment, Raza is NOT united, and I’m not sure how much this article works towards that unity… or if the writer even cares for that unity. It’s a mess, but it’s UNETHICAL for individuals to PROFIT FROM THE MESS. mis dos centavos…
Why Is it that Mexican-Americans,’Hispanics, Chicanos – whatever the Polically correct term is in today’s world – feel they are constantly being discrimated against- my children were “forced bussed” in the early ’80s”….. at the time i never once felt we were being discrimated against – we saw it as their going to a different school – they didn’t know nor did we as parents – that “segregation” was ever an issue. So can we please move on so my granchildren can live & learn in a community where no one is “racially profiled”.
Racist Republicans? The ones that don’t want you to kill your own brown or black children through Abortion? The ones that donate heavily to help the Americans struggling in society, why? Because I as a Tea Party Republican feel that is what we as Americans do. We, that are Tea Party Republicans aren’t asking for a “White” caucus, we aren’t asking for a day to celebrate my heritage or my neighbor’s on either side. We are happy to be Americans without a hyphen. My grandfather who came from a foreign land instilled in us, you vote and go to church. Maybe, just maybe you need to consider looking at things differently, because there is only a 50% chance your way is correct, and if this country gets destroyed because of your incessant, immature and un thoughtful complaining, neither your family, nor my family benefits!
I have a problem with using children as agents of political change.
That seems to be the only thing the modern Chicano movement is about (MAS). That, and erasing the US Mexican border (in the northward direction anyway).
I don’t see a broken community. I see people trying to break it so their part gets to be on top. Segregation and discrimination occur when these changes are constantly being highlighted and thrown in people’s faces. Harmony and community occur when everyone is part of the whole, not trying to be at the top of the pile.
The MAS teachers knew that these issues had been raised by their former students and yet did nothing….NOTHING. Yet, they all rallied around Arce. Romero asked them to be part of the CRC??? I don’t get it. Do they deserve to be in a classroom? It seems that MAS became all about money and ignored issues that could tarnish the money train. So many defense funds. Where did all that money go? If that wasn’t bad enough, a new formula for moneymaking has been introduced as the Acosta Latino Learning Partnership.
SES has gotten good at making money off la causa and continues to find new ways to do so. In lak ech and panche be has become all about $$$
Tú eres mi otro yo/I will milk your pockets dry
Si te hago daño a ti/I will ignore it and blame you
Si le hago daño a la communidad/I’ll deny it because I like people clapping and cheering for me
Te amo y respeto only if you put me on a pedestal/I love and respect only those that agree with me and donate money
Me amo y respeto and don’t appreciate disruptions especially when it involves rape/I love and respect myself because we are the TRUE victims. Everyone else is the enemy.
Mari, did you try to find out how much money has been raised by Save Ethnic Studies folks and where that money went?
“Tucson’s Chicano community” — according to my Hispanic wife — does not represent anywhere NEAR the total Hispanic-Latino population in the community, let alone in the TUSD. And saying “hundreds” showed up (at a meeting), again demonstrates the very small number of people who may be affected in some way by the “MAS” program, considering there are around 50,000 students in the District. So what REALLY is at stake here, and for whom?
Two keys to understanding the strident emotions this story generates
1. Follow the money
2. Those most shrilly crying “slander” and “harming students, the movement, the community” are following the money
*yawn*
Having done more than any other local journalist to expose the petty infighting and general ineptitude that characterizes the MAS/SES mob, shouldn’t Mari Herreras be recognized with some kind of journalism award? And would it matter if she’s never realized she’s been doing it?
Ms. Herreras evidently can’t see the forest for the trees. The rest of us are alternately amused and disgusted by the whole spectacle.
Hopefully back into the black, racist, traitorous hole it came from. My biggest question is why was Isabel Garcia not fired from the county attorneys office when she exposed her racist side, her credibility of being non-biased had to became a liability for that office.
shame on the MAS teachers for not supporting a survivor of sexual violence
i am grateful that someone is using their power and reach as a local professional to ensure that more than one narrative is seen as valid, important and truthful. i wish that was the case for so many more MAS-involved people in the Tucson community.
At the center of this story is MAS, which is a story onto itself and which Mari Herrera has written more about than any journalist in Tucson, for that matter, in the country. MA courses and what they stand for all tie to providing another perspective to students; one that is relevant. The Anglo-centric curriculum simply is too narrow and cheats students of other relevant perspectives. Since the vast majority of the curriculum remains Anglo-centric, a few classes which provide a Mexican American and African American perspective should have resulted in the Horne/Huppenthal/Stegeman festered phobia that is based on the believe that only one single narrow perspective is ample. Horne started the frenzy with his crazed and biased law; Huppenthal has kept to his campaign promise to eliminate MAS and Stegeman has willingly jumped on their band wagon, voting against curriculum, courses, etc. that pertain to Mexican American perspectives.
Herrera has exposed some of the underbelly of the MAS movement and while it is uncomfortable for many, and joyful for those that like to see the so called division, placing that information in the light forces accountability. Misogyny, in its many hate-filled forms has caused great personal and political harm but it has not broken the activist movement in its entirety. One corner of that movement has imploded, much due to their arrogant egos, general reckless behavior- inclusive of their anti-womyn actions. In the long run, this implosion may support the entire movement in moving forward without gender-based barriers and heedless actions. The people behind these misguided egos have clearly been identified and their misogynist behavior has been called out. Some continue to spew their hate in various forms, for example, by robotically stating that “MAS is dead” or by stating that the culturally relevant courses that are now being proposed have been watered down (without any type of factual comparison) or by suggesting that desegregation money be taken away from TUSD or by repeatedly attacking many of the womyn within the movement. All of these efforts point back to condescending egos who insist on having it their way or no way at all. With continued exposure their credibility will continue to erode. The Tucson Weekly should continue to reveal the good, the bad and the ugly on all issues, including this one and Herrera should not allow intimidation tactics from the misogynist bullies to silence her.
thank you for these words. they offer a vital reminder of the ways we are still learning how to walk the talk: “in lak ech… was it in theory only, or were we really living it?” on the path we are learning the vital lesson that attacks within ethnic studies are also attacks against ethnic studies, that our communities are not immune from carrying out the racial and colonial violence we have survived but that colonialism and racism depend on the deployment of misogynous violence within our communities, that the injustice experienced by those marginalized in our communities (including but not limited to young, undocumented, queer/trans chicanxs and chicanas) is not only relevant to the movement but central to it. if we measure a movement’s success through the lens of in lak ech, then the struggle in tucson shows something far from defeat, rather it shows a painful yet vital step toward deep healing, transformation and decolonization. history will keep repeating the lessons, offering a chance to grow, to recognize that a path of political consistency with regard to all the myriad forms of violence our communities experience is vital for the well-being, sustainability and future of a community, that the justice sought and deserved by the most marginalized among us should be the justice pursued by us all, that each time we choose to go against mi otro yo, we choose to go against ourselves, that none of us raza is safe if any one of us is not safe. les mando mucha energía desde el fondo del corazón a lxs q luchan en arizona, bellísima tierra ancestral hacia un nuevo amanecer, teaching us and opening the door for new ways to see ourselves, to organize and to make liberatory movements. humbled and honored by the courage of your struggle.
The “Anglo centrist, narrow perspective” bullshit was covered in 8th grade history. White Europeans in greater numbers with longer guns came and took what they pleased. That’s all that needs to be said.
The world if full of conquered countries and nothing is going to change that until the next batch of bastards come in greater numbers with longer guns.
Of course the fact that the MEXICANS were busy fighting with EACH OTHER certainly made it that much easier. And the Mexicans who weren’t fighting were easily bought off. That’s the Mexican way.
No struggle for justice ever succeeds by diminishing, harassing, and abusing women. May we learn from history and build a strong, inclusive, anti-patriarchal movement. I applaud the women who have given voice to this critique. I know it takes a lot of courage.
Thank you for your courageous words, Ms. Herrera and all the women who continue to give voice to the injustices women continue to face in “liberatory” movements.
The case in question is about ‘the power to change oppression’ versus the ‘oppressive power over others.’ How does Mexican-American Studies, an inherently multicultural critical educational model that embraces empowerment through love, awareness, and respect for all cultures, get implemented at the K-12 level in Arizona, “a state inhospitable to Latino residents,” as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Moreover, how does Arizona state law nearly undermine federal law in a predominantly Mexican-American community by abolishing an effective and successful educational program? Ironically, the controversial program was created specifically with a pedagogical and theoretical framework designed to confront the problems of racism and socioeconomic oppression and to create stable social-educational identities and engaging learning communities. It becomes particularly problematic and ironic because Arizona (and the greater US southwest) is Mexico (historically)—what the US conquered post-Mexican-American War with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. In addition, the border culture is a hybrid culture comprised with culturally similar, but individually diverse people on both sides of the Mexic0-US border. I argue that the legal power of the courts and its legislative agency in the form of interest representation (of the majority-minority Mexican-American population) played a crucial role in the actual de jure implementation of Mexican-American Studies into the educational curriculum because of the 1978 Federal Mandate to desegregate Tucson Unified School District. Responding to the needs of the Mexican-American community, MAS is implemented to meet both the federal mandate and to satisfy the social, educational, and community needs of Mexican-American students and families.
Frankly, there is a neoliberal and neoconservative war on public education, and more broadly the public sector. In the broad battle in the public educational sector exists a connected front in the form of the P20K, English-Only and NCLB movements, and the related push to end ethnic studies is yet a new battle in this arena and is also a controversial topic in some multicultural and multilingual societies. In Arizona, there is a serious and multifaceted problem surrounding the nativist racism generally and the legality of Arizona discriminatory state laws pertaining to Mexican-Americans and to the banning of ethnic studies (Mexican-American Studies (MAS)) at Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), a district with a rich tradition of successful bidirectional bilingual education (IRDC). In addition, district officials and state political leaders contend that MAS’ educational curriculum and pedagogy is racist, ethnocentric, and insurrectionist. What is interesting about this case is how MAS got implemented in Arizona originally, and how despite federally mandated origins, the State of Arizona and TUSD persist with their crusade to end ethnic studies—almost successfully. The case crystallizes at several levels and various forms of agency are made evident. Interestingly, the MAS program was instituted due to a federal desegregation mandate to integrate students from a majority Latino community into the public education system, effectively aiming at balancing racial disparity in achievement and graduation. Somehow, the state of Arizona passed not one, but several state laws that are arguably either unconstitutional or contradictory to federal law or mandate, as in this specific case and the state legislation passed to ensure the complete demise of ethnic studies in public education. Nevertheless, oppositional actors involved using a narrative comprised of anti-Americanism, nativism, ethnocentrism, and codified xenophobic language to articulate an argument against MAS as promoting ethnic resentment (racial antagonism towards “other races”—other being white) and ethnic solidarity, social justice, and overthrow of the government. Some GOP TUSD School Board members have asserted that MAS is indoctrination, offering only one viewpoint not reflective of American exceptionalist history.
Further, stable identities directly affect motivation to learn and thus the potentiality for educational achievement. The case study examining the legal and political battle surrounding TUSD’s Mexican-American Studies program (which has consistently proven its effectiveness in yearly performance reports and creates stable identities in their pupils) serves as evidence for implementing a critical pedagogy (critical theory of education) in public education.
The main issues surrounding the problematic abolishing of Mexican-American Studies are directly tied to the actions from the court system because of an ongoing federal mandate to desegregate Tucson Unified School District. In short, TUSD has been under a federal desegregation order since 1978 that they have refused to comply with. The creation of the Mexican American Studies program is a direct result of that order’s legislative process over the last 30 years; subsequently, MAS in Tucson is a federally mandated program created by the courts in aimed at balancing racial disparity and funded by the local taxpayers.
As of December 2012, the demographics of the district were composed of: 62.4% Hispanic (of any race, primarily Mexican-American), 23.2% non-Hispanic Whites, 5.5% Black, 3.7% Native American, 2.4% Multi-racial, and 2.7% Asian, which relates to a total of 51,280 students. It follows that 31,976 were Hispanic (any race, primarily Mexican-American), 11910 non-Hispanic White, 2844 Black, 1913 Native-American, 1230 Multi-racial and 1407 Asian students. With this information, one would expect a curriculum that would somehow incorporate an accurate history of the Mexican-American experience and other minority groups without opposition. In Tucson, Arizona, that is exactly the opposite of what is—a 61% Mexican-American majority community, with a proven educational program, is being attacked legally and politically. As late as the 60s and 70s, deeply entrenched segregation plagued Tucson Unified School District. Therein lays the root of the problem of this case. The root of the desegregation dilemma in Tucson Unified lie in the past and posits how TUSD, which was a national model for desegregation prior to Brown v. Board of Education, become enmeshed in such racial and ethnic controversy? Moreover, how did it come under federal mandate to desegregate amidst charges that Mexican-American children were being given an inferior education (ironically that led the federal government to passage of federal funding for Bilingual Education as well)? Put into context, the campaign to end Mexican-American Studies, or ethnic studies more generally, reflects the political environment in Arizona—arguably inhospitable to Mexican-Americans as evidenced by the presence and anti-Americananti-immigration rhetoric reflected in the discourse of many leaders, most infamously, Sheriff Joe Arapaio among others.
MAS professors for me, give us a glimpse of mentorship and a side of academia not really seen elsewhere. Their consciousness of the historical experience of Chicana/o students and their experiences ascending through the academy create a unique space for teaching and learning where the relationship between professor and student is more equal. In MAS, the body of knowledge comes from our professors and Chicano scholarship, as well as the students and even the community. At times, most MAS professors allow us to call them by their first name. The classes and course content is not easy, rather it is very reading and writing intensive, due to the inherent nature of critical reflection and analysis. In transforming society, our professors motivate and mentor us through the graduate program and encourage regular meetings with them to demystify the professor-student relationship found in graduate school. Coming from political science and political philosophy, MAS opened my eyes and refined my views on things I either never knew or thought I knew all too well. It has broadened my horizons and prepared me in ways I never knew possibly—including creating a confidence I thought I had lost long ago, and reinforcing a strong pride for my culture and people. What is taught in traditional schools is basically a romanticized, abridged, edited, and glamourized version of Anglo, really Euro-American history; certain narratives are reproduced and ideologies repromulgated. MAS and ethnic studies offers an objective and inclusive view of history, society, and politics.
In perspective to race relations and racial justice, ethnic studies and Mexican-American Studies are key agents in fighting racist structures because these scholarly disciplines are themselves agential products of the Civil Rights eras. Ethnic studies arose out of the Civil Rights area, taking an interdisciplinary approach and emerging on several college campuses in the late 1960s and 1970s. Extending this to the Mexican-American ethnic group, the Chicano Movement and its activist scholars indigenously produced its own scholarship evolving between Raza Studies, Chicano Studies, Chicana/o Studies, and Mexican American Studies. Yet, RACISM IS NOT DYING. About 80-90% of all nonviolent drug crimes are by young black & Latino males, yet drug use & dealing is actually higher in the white community. It’s the New Jim Crow. After the great recession & foreclosure meltdown, most of the new homeless were disproportionately black & Latino. Prisons detain thousands of transnational migrant workers…for profit AND they predict building future prisons based in the standardized test scores of 3rd grade Latino & black boys. And, Ethnic studies is under attack nationwide, and now in Texas, eliminating the choice for people of color to take alternate US history courses in the ethnic studies disciplines. Racism is alive and we must actively fight it and not believe the myth of post racial America. MAS gives me the critical lens to analyze these pressing issues.
What’s more is the nature and history of American immigration and the multiculturalism, multingualism, and diversity that America is supposed to reflect. Euro-Americans were never a monolithic group, and neither has the thread of the fabric of American culture and history. MAS and ethnic studies incorporate critical theories of education which inherently reflect respect, diversity, and multiculturalism—awareness and equality of all races, not Brown or Black superiority. With so many different ethnic and national origin groups in the US, ethnic studies makes sense, especially in demographically minority-majority local districts and states. Targeting laws towards ethnic studies, specifically Chicano Studies, is targeting a specific racial subgroup—an ethnic group—within large multitude of American identities—not mention racist. Ethnic studies are rife in American history, but historically were Euro-American. If ethnic studies were to be integrated into the broad curriculum, then vestiges of racism and categorization analysis would dissipate. All students, including white students, benefit from these courses. These courses remind of the true history of America—the hardship, the struggles, the inhumanity, impunity, along with the great victories and advances. If we ignore the actuality of history, then we’re not teaching true history. The history of America is revolutionary—to seek relief from oppression from the British. The Civil Rights struggles made America better—ethnic studies make America better. Moreover, ethnic studies highlight the contributions of Chicanos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and other minorities to the building of this nation.
Multiculturalism and critical education can also break racial and ethnic societal divisions and allow for a multicultural/multiracial broad-based coalition or movement. Critical education infused with multiculturalism of the public masses like this will be conducive to stable identities, accurate understanding of the past, and will lead to better race/societal relations and socioeconomic advancement—greater achievement gaps and access to higher education for people of color, social mobility. Further, critical education will facilitate the transition in race relations to forge a successful multicultural/multiracial-class coalition and broad-based movement that on the macro scale fuses coalition/movement politics with electoral politics and syncretizes the processes and strategies of mobilization, organization, public education, where again the role of education both with the movement and within the academy are vital.
I am no fan of the MAS program which was always more about political indoctrination than educating people about their culture and their history. If the MAS zealots want to indoctrinate students they are free to start their own private schools and do just that. They could get all the substantial benefits that religious schools get in Arizona, and they would not have to worry about following HB 2281 or any other state law. Unless MAS supporters are willing to do that they should realize that the entire area now knows about the failure of education in MAS classrooms. They should know that we all know that the MAS program was no more successful in educating Mexican-American students than the standard TUSD programs. They should know that we all know that Augie Romero phonied the numbers to perpetuate the myth that 98+% of MAS students graduated. Finally, they should know we all know that the culturally relevant…and almost completely segregated…classes mandated by Master (or is that Massa) Hawley are nothing but window dressing for a district that would rather Mexican American students continue to fail so the district can continue to receive about $70 million a year in desegregation funding.
Having said all that, kudos to Ms. Herreras for exposing the misogyny that poisons this movement. The notion that women should step aside and let men dominate the movement is in keeping with the way other anti-democratic movements around the world operate.
Who exactly is the “they” in “they should know”? Who exactly does “we” refer to in ‘we all know.” It sounds rather condescending but want to understand the particulars; perhaps you have information no one else does. Marty, if you have solid facts; deliver. If the best you have is vague accusations, then let us know that is all you have.