Mexican American Studies supporters to protest TUSD meeting
When Raza blogger, David Abie Morales, first announced that he and his small band of Mexican American Studies supporters were beginning a recall effort against Tucson Unified Board member Michael Hicks, the news was splashed everywhere. Mainstream media and crazed granola and Cheetos® eating bloggers typed furiously of the news.
When the recall effort was called off for lack of support, the media did not find it newsworthy.
This week, that same small band, with the help of veterans of the failed effort to recall Wisconsin Governor Walker, are planning other events that are sure to be covered by the media no matter how tiny or insignificant it is.
This third week of “Freedom Summer” begins with a presentation by Miguel Ortega. Ortega who threatened an elected official and a private citizen during his run for TUSD School Board is hosting “We Won in the 1990’s: The Mexican American Studies Victory on the Shoulders of Giants” on Monday at Access Television headquarters.
Ortega is the Director of Latino Marketing for the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He has been very active in the Mexican American Studies effort; participating in various protests over the past two years. According to Ortega, “This is something I am doing on my own. I think Access Tucson listed my association with the THCC but it is not endorsed or sponsored by the THCC.”
On Tuesday, UNIDOS, a group made up of primarily college students, and David Abie Morales, otherwise known as the Three Sonorans has put out a “Call out to the nation… huge events planned for next Tuesday’s TUSD board meeting.”
Morales and his troupe are objecting to the fact that TUSD Governing Board member Mark Stegeman is trying to bring attention to the fact that the Mexican American Studies books were never banned and the removal of the books from the classroom by the district’s administration was a stunt.
On the agenda for this week’s meeting is a proposal to put the books that were not banned back into classrooms. The irony of the situation is that few if any of the so called “banned” books were rarely, if ever used by the Mexican American Studies classes. Instead students were given mostly given handouts, and a copies of Roberto “Dr Cintli” Rodriguez’s book, The X in La Raza, according to testimony in the district’s appeal of the state’s finding that the classes were illegal, and student sources.
In the X in La Raza, Cintli’s conspiracy theories are laid out for students in the district. Cintli argues that the United States stole land from Mexico and the ratified Treaty of Hidalgo is missing the X. Cintli believes that the X allowed for Mexicans to be treated as indigenous to the United States, therefore the ancestors are entitled to land.
Cintli also claims that the Aztecs originated in Utah and migrated south into Mexico. Aztec spirituality is preached in many of the MAS classes according to testimony by district employees in the district’s appeal of the state’s finding that the classes violate state law.
With the book stunt the district was perpetuating the victimization myth on behalf of certain school board members, including Adelita Grijalva, daughter of progressive Congressman Raul Grijalva, and her friendly staff members who rely on division and acrimony in order to forward their political agenda.
The book removal stunt was intended to make the district look as if it was ordered to do so by the State, thereby feeding the frenzy fueling the fringe.