Heads up! Books are forbidden

This column first appeared in Spanish in Al Día news, April 13. Read it here.

I’ve been closely following Arizona schools compliance with House Bill 2281, a measure that pulled Mexican-American history and literature from the curriculum and, quite literally, off the classroom shelves. Some of the big names in U.S. Latino fiction and poetry have been deemed inappropriate for young Latino students to read as part of their school work.

Like that state’s noxious and contested immigration law, the move cannot be read as anything but a blatantly anti-Latino move. Unlike SB 1070, however, this ruling doesn’t bother to disguise its prejudice with the excuse of illegal entry or unauthorized residence. No, this move simply seeks to make sure Latino students, citizen and non-citizen alike, don’t get too uppity.

Because that’s what being engaged by education does. That’s what seeing your history and heritage seriously considered and represented in academic texts does. That’s what identifying with literary protagonists who might look like you, or sound like you, or live like you, does. It makes you damn uppity and harder to disenfranchise and bamboozle.

It gives you voice.

Poet Lorna Dee Cervantes gave evidence of just that during a rally to protest the ban. It wasn’t until she read the works of U.S. Latino writers, she said, that she felt entitled to put her words on paper. She went on to become not only a university professor, but one of the best known U.S. Latina poets.

The importance of Cervantes’ example should not be underestimated. Young Latinos grow up barraged with images of themselves as nannies, housekeepers and farmworkers — not writers, intellectuals and academics. Understand, I’m not disparaging that first set of  occupations — all honorable jobs requiring far more specialized skills and abilities than we commonly attribute to them — but bemoaning the lack of visibility for the second set.

Arizona institutionalizes that lack by banning from the classroom evidence that young Latino students can, and do, grow up to be U.S. Latino historians and writers and intellectuals who are not satisfied with rehashing Anglocentric historical analysis or literary trope.

By its decision, Arizona denies that U.S. history is big enough to include the history of its Latino citizens and of their legacy, which includes (but is not limited to) an academic, intellectual tradition that predates any other in North America. (The first university in Mexico opened a full 100 years before Harvard, the first university in the U.S., and 127 years before the first university in Canada.)

None of those students will be exposed to or discuss in class the literary merits of the novels written by “las Girlfriends” (Sandra Cisneros, Denise Chavez, Julia Alvarez and Ana Castillo), some of the nation’s brightest Latina literary stars, because the measure prohibits courses or classes that "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" and the school boards in places like Tucson believe none but Latinos would be interested in such literature.

It is a disaster — not only for the Latino students, but for all high school students in Arizona. Is it any wonder the Quality Counts compiled by Education Week journalists in 2012 gave Arizona a C- for its educational efforts overall and a D+ for its K-12 education?

To my dismay as a Latina writer, there hasn’t been a huge outcry about the Arizona ban, certainly nothing akin to the furor we saw when school districts tried to ban Harry Potter novels a number of years back.

But there have been some wonderful and ingenious responses. Tony Diaz, known on twitter as @librotraficante (www.librotraficante.com), put together a book caravan of the banned books, handed those books out to students and started four underground libraries. Gina Ruiz, a writer and the blogger of Banning History in Arizona (www.banninghistory.blogspot.com), promoted a YouTube “read-in” of the banned books. And almost all of the writers whose words have been excised have advocated for the ban to be overturned — in person at rallies, in print or online.

All of them, giving voice.

Manu Chao, Two Americans and Arizona's SB 1070

Manu Chao is a Spanish/French singer, who performed in Sept. at Penns Landing in Philadelphia. Later that month he gave a free concert in Arizona for altoarizona.com to draw attention to the harsh immigration laws in effect in that state.

Parts of the video are filmed in front of Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's tent city jail for undocumented immigrants. Yes, the sheriff makes them wear "jailbird" stripes, and a number of years ago, he paraded them down main street in shackles (this link will take you to the New York Times editorial that appeared after that degrading spectacle) and are part of a documentary titled "Two Americans" (www.twoamericans.com). Here's the trailer from their film:

Poets Responding to SB 1070

A new poem of mine is up on Poets Responding to SB 1070 page on facebook: http://on.fb.me/gonkFM

Go read, comment (or not), "like" the page. And be aware that 1070 copycat legislation is proposed for Pennsylvania. (See one of my previous blog posts for a list of anti-immigrant legislation introduced to the Pa. legislature this session.)

Comfort and joy

It's been a tough number of weeks. Not only for us at the Catholic Standard & Times, but for all Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

And for Latinos in Arizona, who have seen one bill move through the Appropriations Committee that would make it possible for the children of the undocumented to be denied schooling of any kind (including private or home-schooling), medical care and housing; and another couple of bills denying U.S.-born babies citizenship.

And for workers in Wisconsin, who may no longer have collective bargaining rights. (Click here for the Catholic bishops' statements in support of workers' rights.)

And for people in Oman, Djibouti, Libya, Iraq. And Somalia, which has seen some of its worst violence in recent years, according to a family friend who knows what he's speaking about.

In the readings of the week (Sir. 5:1-8) I read:

Rely not on your wealth; say not: “I have the power.” Rely not on your strength in following the desires of your heart.

And it is -- somehow -- reflection, commentary and prophesy all rolled into one.
Authority is not right. Power over is not the same as power from. Repression and misdirection are not the refuge of the righteous, but of the terrified.

Amid all the huge (HUGE) issues of the day, I find comfort in the most plebian of tasks: cooking for my loved ones. Comfort food that speaks to us of warmth and love and days spent peacefully -- with eyes fixed to a calm horizon.

I am cooking cochinita pibil and Oaxacan-style pumpkin tamales: You are invited.

I'm a simple person, and I don't have much, but I understand what Russell Pearce and Scott Walker and Muammar Gaddafi and so many others with real power in the world don't: there is enough --and it is a joy to share.

Of Crossed Genres, SFF Portal and good reviews

Dear blog reader:

You've stood with me through a lot of posts that outline the difficulties, the heartbreak, the stories of deportation and detention and immigrant lives shrouded in shadow. You've hung in there as I've railed and cried about the legislative failures surrounding the revision of existing, broken immigration laws and visa quotas. You've read about the DREAM Act and Arizona's anti-immigrant/anti-Hispanic law and efforts to repeal the 14th Amendment (more about that later). You've commented and sent me personal messages ranging from "now that's a downer - LOL - good post" to "Amen."

You deserve a happy post from me. So here it is -- my first in 2011 (and I hope that bodes well for the year).

If you're a regular reader of this blog you know that occasionally -- more occasionally than I'd like, anyway -- I ask you to follow a sort of Ariadne's thread of links, to sites deep in the labyrinth of web that have published my poetry or my speculative fiction. Tonight I'm sending you to a site that reviews just such work. If you click here, you'll get to read a review of the anthology that includes my story "Flying with the Dead."

Writers like me don't get a lot of chance to hear what readers think of their work. Not everyone who reads this blog comments on it, for example. It's tough sometimes to believe -- despite what Blogger and Lijit stats tell me -- that anyone's reading at all. Same thing with the poetry and fiction.

Except then somebody will comment on a post.

Or, in this case, someone will write a lovely review of my story and I'll sit at the computer reading -- with gratitude, and some wonder too, in my heart. Because just like all the immigration advocacy and stories I subject you to here -- the fiction too is really a conversation with whomever reads the story. And I love when it is reciprocal.

And, yes, even in fiction you don't get away from my focus on the lives of immigrants: "Flying with the Dead" has its fantastical elements, but its bones are real.

I'd love it if this blog post and the review I've linked would provide the impetus for you to purchase the Crossed Genres Year Two anthology (it's for sale at Createspace and Amazon) or to support online magazines like Crossed Genres and The Portal. Small, indie magazines like these are a lot like immigration advocates -- they work very hard to widen the variety of voices we get to hear -- and they deserve support.

Plus, they make me dance a jig.

Next post: Did you know 7 states are targeting birthright citizenship? (Click here to read.)

By the way, the great photo at the top of this post has nothing, whatever, to do with fiction or immigration. I just like it because it is so evocative. It comes straight out of CS&T photographer Sarah Webb's portfolio of images. Lovely, isn't it? Check out her photos at cst-phl.com.

I'll have a cheesesteak with that racial profiling bill, please

Philadelphia's renowned Geno's Steaks was the site of a 4-hour radio fundraiser in support of Arizona's SB1070 law. Organized by Geno's owner, Joey Vento, the event was broadcast by WPHT radio's Dom Giordano.

Citizens, people of faith, comprehensive immigration reform advocates and members of several Catholic religious congregations and organizations gathered across the street from the eatery to protest the Arizona law - which human and civil rights advocates (as well as many Latino citizens) say will institutionalize racial profiling and adversely affect people of Hispanic heritage regardless of documentation status.

A bill modeled after Arizona's has been introduced in Pennsylvania by Rep. Daryl Metcalfe. Like its Arizona counterpart HB2479 states that law enforcement shall verify the immigration status of any person the officer has stopped, arrested or detained and "who is or should reasonably be suspected of being unlawfully present in the state." One of the co-sponsors of the bill, Rep. Tom Creighton said in an interview in Lancaster's Intelligencer Journal that what amounts to reasonable suspicion would be "a real subjective decision by that officer."

Earlier on the 14th, Tucson's Bishop Gerald Kicanas testified before Congress (the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law) on the ethical imperative for reform of the U.S. immigration system.

Immigration is ultimately a humanitarian issue, the bishop said, since it impacts the rights and dignity of millions of persons and their families. "As such it has moral implications." he said. "We cannot accept the toil and taxes of immigrants without providing them the protection of law."

The bishop, whose diocese runs along the whole of the Arizona-Mexico border, said he witnesses every day "the human consequences of our broken immigration system."

Photos of the rally across the street from Geno's Steaks by Sarah Webb for the CS&T.

July 14: Join other people of faith in Philadelphia to decry racial profiling & SB1070

Tomorrow, Joey Vento of Geno's Steaks (you know, the "Speak English, this is America" local merchant and anti-immigration personality who I wrote about here) is hosting a fundraiser to "protect" SB1070 from the Department of Justice lawsuit. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio (the Arizona sheriff who places detained immigrants in shackles and houses them in tent prisons, see a post about him here), Congressional candidate/Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta all plan to participate (via radio).

Please help us send a message that we do not support laws or policies that encourage racial profiling - here or in Arizona - by joining other people of faith and immigration advocates at 5:30 p.m. at the Capitolo Park, at 9th and Passayunk in South Philadelphia (across the street from Geno's Steaks).

From USA Today - one of the first lawsuits brought against Arizona immigration law

Action brought by Arizona police officer Martin Escobar, outlining the ways he believes the law will racially profile Hispanics.
Arizona immigration lawsuit

HB2479 - Et tu, Pennsylvania?

Per the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition:

"This morning, Representative Metcalfe (R-Butler) held a press conference to announce his intention to introduce Arizona-style legislation here in Pennsylvania. More information is available in his press release.

"Pennsylvania and America can do better. Polices that encourage racial profiling and create fear of police turn back the clock on the advances of the civil rights struggle and are counter to our values as Americans. Until we enact workable solutions at the federal level, local communities will continue to struggle with the impact of our broken system instead of moving forward together to rebuild our economy and secure our future.

"The Arizona law requires law enforcement to stop and question anyone whom they have 'reasonable suspicion' to believe is undocumented, requires immigrants to carry proof of their immigration status or else face fines and criminal penalties, and a provision that allows private citizens to sue law enforcement or other state and local government agencies over the issue. The Arizona law has raised concerns from law enforcement officers trying to focus scarce resources on their real job of protecting all of our communities, concerns about racial profiling and civil rights violations, and public condemnation from a wide range of elected officials. A number of organizations have announced their intention to bring a legal challenge."

Take Action:

1. Join people from faith, labor and immigrant communities this Thursday as they speak out against the Arizona law and any similar legislation here in PA, calling on the Senate to take action on reform at the federal level.

Thursday May 6, 10 AM
In front of Senator Casey's office in Philadelphia at 20th and Market. Followed by a procession down Market Street to Love Park (at 16th and JFK), to join people from all faith communities and participate in the Mayor's office of Faith Initiatives Day of Prayer. Faith leaders who are interested in offering prayers while at Love Park can contact Rev. Malcolm Byrd at the Mayor's Office of Faith Initiatives.

2. Call Senator Casey
Tell him: We need a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate.
Toll Free Numbers: English 866-877-5552 Spanish 866-901-3139

3. Contact the White House and call on President Obama to put an end to policies like 287(g) and secure communities, which promote racial profiling and undermine police community relationships. 202-456-1111

Flagging Arizona

I’ve spent time in Arizona. In fact, a good 40 years ago, my parents thought about purchasing property there. They considered it seriously enough to begin plotting out the design of the house they would build in the environs of Sedona (in those days, completely undeveloped). I remember hoping they’d change their minds. Used to the lush green of Guatemala, Arizona’s beauty eluded me. It simply seemed a harsh and inhospitable place.

In the ensuing years I’ve learned to delight in the spectacular colors and starkly stunning landscapes of the American Southwest. But it turns out that my child self was right after all. Arizona, after the signing into law of SB1070 yesterday, is truly a harsh and inhospitable place.

Soon, it will be impossible in Arizona to drive someone to the hospital or emergency room without first ascertaining whether their documents are in order. If you do so – either because you don’t think to ask about their documents or because your humanitarian instincts compel you to provide help anyway -- you can kiss your car goodbye (because it will be impounded) and you may face further sanctions.

Soon, if you look like you could possibly be an undocumented immigrant in Arizona, the police will have the law-backed right to stop you, wherever and whenever, and ask you to prove you are fully documented. And, if you think a social security card will be enough proof, think again.

Soon, even transiting through Arizona while looking like you might, conceivably, be undocumented will be a crime. And in Arizona -- as in the rest of the rest of the United States since immigration has become a hot button topic -- you look “illegal” if you look “Latino.”

Set aside for a moment that there are Latinos of all colors and “looks” (I have Guatemalan cousins who are amazons closer to 6-ft. than 5, and crowned with heads of hair nearer to auburn than dark brown or black), there are plenty of citizens and permanent residents and fully documented folks who fit the bill of what those Arizonan police officers will be looking to pull over.

There’s been a lot of effort expended by proponents of the bill-which-is-now-law to explain that passage of this law is not a form of sanctioned racial profiling. If you clicked the link on my last blog post you know that spokespeople are claiming that there is a whole arsenal of “indicators” besides skin-tone or accented English for determining potential “illegal” status – including the type of clothing and shoes you wear.

Oh, good, that makes it so much better.

Is this new? Of course not. African-Americans, particularly young men, have been routinely stopped because the police find it suspicious that they are where they are at any given moment. My college friend Cary was taken aside and questioned by police at the Bronxville train station just because he was young and African American and the police assumed he wasn’t a student at Sarah Lawrence College because of that. My older brother stopped wearing his black leather jacket when he was a grad student at Yale because whenever he did the New Haven cops would stop him, thinking no Latino who looked and dressed like him could possibly have been rightfully registered at that august institution of higher learning.

So, of course, racial profiling takes place, daily, in states other than Arizona. It’s just that as of yesterday, Arizona is flying its racial profiling as a flag to be saluted.

This sad and horrifying law should raise concern beyond those who might fear being stopped. Remember, this law criminalizes Good Samaritan action -- don’t stop to give that stranded motorist a lift to the nearest gas station or telephone box. It potentially criminalizes friendship --how many times do you ask your friends or acquaintances or coworkers to prove their legal status before they get into your car? It criminalizes the pastoral care priests and religious leaders provide for their congregations when they provide vans and buses to bring them to church or catechism classes. It criminalizes the ways we are a human family and so help each other out.

The Catholic bishops and other religious leaders of the region have roundly condemned this law as immoral (see here and here and here). A broad coalition of organizations is protesting and drawing attention to the injustice the law institutionalizes and the dangerous precedents it sets (see here and here and here). A boycott has been called (see here and here).

I have to say I’m pretty proud of the individuals and organizations that are willing to stand and protest a law this unjust. As for me, I don’t take losses of civil liberties or institutionalized prejudice lightly. I plan to keep writing about it and nagging the president and all of those legislators whose self-interest has eclipsed common good and common sense in this matter.

I hope that as a reader of this blog you join me in this. Let’s lower Arizona’s racial profiling flag and fly a different one, okay? One that acknowledges that at some point we all wore immigrant shoes and clothes and skin -- and that it never was a good enough reason to be pulled over. Or left stranded.

Image of antique map of the Americas from the Vintage Moth.

Draconian measures in Arizona

Shocking bill proposed in Arizona (itals are mine):

PHOENIX — The state moved on two fronts Tuesday to prohibit politicians and appointed agency chiefs from blocking law enforcement officers from enforcing immigration laws.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 8-3 to outlaw any policies that keep any public employee from contacting federal immigration officials to determine whether someone with whom they are dealing is in this country legally.

That would include not just people stopped by police, but anyone who enters a government building applying for a benefit, service or license where being a legal resident is a condition.

And to make sure SB 1162 had some real teeth, Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, included a provision allowing anyone who believes a public official is ignoring the law to sue.

Fi2W (Feet in 2 Worlds) blog has this: http://bit.ly/B9UHq about the proposed legislation.

'A degrading spectacle'

“It has come to this: In Phoenix on Wednesday, more than 200 men in shackles and prison stripes were marched under armed guard past a gantlet of TV cameras to a tent prison encircled by an electric fence. They were inmates being sent to await deportation in a new immigrant detention camp minutes from the center of America’s fifth-largest city.

The judge, jury and exhibitioner of this degrading spectacle was the Maricopa County sheriff, Joe Arpaio, the publicity-obsessed star of a Fox reality show and the self-appointed scourge of illegal immigrants.”

That is from the Feb. 5 op-ed piece in the New York Times. It is worth reading in its entirety [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/opinion/06fri2.html?_r=2&scp=9&sq=immigration&st=cse ]

Here is the Associated Press report about the event:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IMMIGRANTS_TENT_CITY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

And the excellent report from El Diario/La Prensa, if you can read Spanish:
http://www.impre.com/noticias/nacionales/2009/2/5/encierran-en-carpas-a-220-indo-107447-1.html

Or, read the Catholic News Service report in the Catholic Standard & Times issue of Feb. 12.