Librotraficante Movement

I stumbled across a hilarious parody in response to ARS 15-112 and the storage of seven critical Mexican-American novels. Why were they stored? Well, because Mexican-American Studies programs, classes, and other Ethnic curriculum courses were removed by ARS 15-112. To sum it up, ARS 15-112 prohibits any schools, courses, or classes to:
1. Promote the overthrow of the United States government.
2. Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.
3. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
4. Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.

It’s also illegal to teach controversial aspects of history.Hmm, that's not cool! Not at all! The only plus side is that “nothing in this section shall be construed to restrict or prohibit the instruction of the holocaust, any other instance of genocide, or the historical oppression of a particular group of people based on ethnicity, race, or class.” This is a little vague to me, mostly because I fail to understand how Mexican-American history courses fail to fall under the last section. Am I too cynical for believing that the removal of the programs will eventually lead to the eventual "official" banning of books? I find ARS 15-112 to be utterly senseless, and I am happy Tony Diaz created a Librotraficante movement. The movement aims to bring awareness to the banned books by “smuggling contraband books back into Arizona March 12 - 18, 2012”; however, according to a Press Release from TUSD, the books are simply stored and have not been banned. Students are able to check out the materials from local libraries, so they're not "banned". Well...  that doesn't seem legit, now does it?

I wonder how legislatures will react and what will happen once they actually “smuggle” the books. They are traveling from Houston to Arizona via 1-10, which means they will be stopping by in El Paso, Texas. They will be posting an itinerary on February 2nd, so hopefully, if time permits, I will be able to attend  a few of them. Luis Urrea is a supporter of the movement, which means I will keep my fingers crossed for him attending something in El Paso -- I LOVE Hummingbird's Daughter.

Here is the video: