NewAmerica Media, Commentary, Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez, Posted: Apr 27, 2012

Editor’s Note: While the U.S. Supreme Court this week heard arguments over Arizona’s immigration law SB 1070, the fallout of another controversial law – the state’s ban on ethnic studies – is being felt across classrooms and communities in Tucson. If the matter is not resolved, the ethnic studies ban could be the next Arizona law to make it to the Supreme Court, writes commentator Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez.

During the miners’ strike in Grants County, New Mexico in 1951, depicted in the 1954 epic film Salt of the Earth, the striking miners and their families were forced to endure extreme hardship as they struck the Empire Zinc Co. for some 15 months. In Tucson, Ariz., teachers from the recently dismantled Mexican American Studies (MAS) department are fast approaching a similar scenario. This, as the state and nation are seemingly a few inches closer to making racial profiling the unconstitutional law of the land.

via Arizona’s ‘Salt of the Earth’ Moment – New America Media.

While Gov. Jan Brewer unceremoniously dumped her disgraced SB 1070 partner Russell Pearce from Arizona’s front seats at tomorrow’s historic Supreme Court hearing on the state’s controversial immigration law, the seminal voices of those most affected by Arizona’s punitive measures will remain in the shadows — and unheard, even in the landslide of media and political forums sure to follow.

In effect, as legal experts battle over the ramifications of states’ rights and immigration jurisdiction, and political pundits range the arpeggio of opinions on racial profiling, criminalization of immigration without proper papers, and SB 1070′s “attrition by enforcement” approach that has struck a nerve with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the legions of undocumented laborers propping up Arizona’s fragile economic recovery in tourism, construction and agriculture have largely been cut out of the national discussion on the state’s landmark immigration showdown.

Are immigrants, in the words of Puente Arizona director Carlos Garcia, “political footballs that politicians on both sides kick around to score points for their own reelection”?

via Jeff Biggers: At Supreme Court, Arizona Leaves Affected Voices at Home: Q & A With Carlos Garcia, Puente Human Rights Advocate.

by Julianne Hing

Sean Arce may not have a job anymore, but he’s still going to defend the program he used to direct. Arce, the former director of Tucson Unified School District’s now-suspended Mexican American Studies program, was fired earlier this month in the latest crackdown on the program in what has become a years-long saga over the fate of the popular program.

via Tucson’s Ousted Mexican-American Studies Director Speaks: The Fight’s Not Over – COLORLINES.

TUCSON –  Public high school instructors who want to teach Latino literature here have few other options besides “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros.

Other books may not be banned, but they aren’t allowed either.

via Neither Banned Nor Allowed: Mexican American Studies in Limbo in Arizona | Fox News Latino.

The Tucson Unified School Board, in a 3-2 vote, ousted the director of the Mexican-American Studies Program on April 10.

Program Director Sean Arce co-founded the MAS Program in 1999 and developed it into one of the most successful programs in the district. In 2004, the Mexican-American Studies Department was combined with the Pan-Asian, African-American and Native-American Studies Departments to create the new Ethnic Studies Department. This made the Tucson district the only K-12 public school

via School Board fires head of Mexican-American Studies.

While riding the shuttle recently, I overheard a fellow student remark, “Ethnic studies is like teaching alternative history.” If the timing had been right, I would have asked my fellow Anglo-American to attend the screening of “Precious Knowledge” that occurred on campus on April10.

The title of the film “Precious Knowledge” comes from a poem by Luis Valdez, “En lak’Ech.” The poem, which opens every class when recited by students in the La Raza/Mexican-Studies programs at Tucson High School, is simple: To love and respect others is to love and respect oneself.

via Ethnic studies are important for all, white kids included – Opinion – The Scribe – University of Colorado.