The Mesquite Online News - Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Experts reflect on Chicano literature’s societal, cultural impact

Dr. Ann V. Bliss, Assistant Professor of English, reads "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury during Banned Books Week, Sept. 25 outside the library in the Central Academic Building. The theme of the book is censorship and it has been banned numerous times. Photo by Andrew Martinez
Dr. Ann V. Bliss, Assistant Professor of English, reads “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury during Banned Books Week, Sept. 25 outside the library in the Central Academic Building. The theme of the book is censorship and it has been banned numerous times. Photo by Andrew Martinez

By Gloria Petit

Last week, a large crowd packed hallways of the second floor in the Central Academic Building to bring awareness to the country’s most conflicting novels for last week’s Read Aloud event that honored Banned Books Week.

Students and employees flipped through pages of their favorite novels and waited anxiously for a chance to read content that school districts have challenged, deeming them unsuitable.

Among the spectrum of books, usually with sexual content or offensive language, were popular titles such as “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James to “1984” by George Orwell.

One of the books read was “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya, one of the most well-known novels in Latino communities, known to many as the godfather of Chicano literature.

With Hispanic Heritage Month and Banned Books Week coinciding, it is a stark reminder of censorship that has been placed on beloved Chicano and Chicana Literature such as “Bless Me, Ultima.”

“Bless Me, Ultima,” written in 1972, focuses on a young boy named Antonio Márez and his journey into manhood. In the novel, Anaya writes of Márez’s societal and cultural changes in the American Southwest during the 1940s, sometimes encountering sexual content and violence.

Communications junior Dee Dixon reads “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya aloud to students and faculty during Banned Books Week Sept. 25 outside the library in Central Academic Building. The reading event was held to celebrate books that have been challenged for their content in libraries and schools around the country. Photo by Andrew Martinez
Communications junior Dee Dixon reads “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya aloud to students and faculty during Banned Books Week Sept. 25 outside the library in Central Academic Building. The reading event was held to celebrate books that have been challenged for their content in libraries and schools around the country. Photo by Andrew Martinez

While the novel is esteemed within literary communities, his novel, among many forms of Mexican-American literature, remains under scrutiny by school boards and public libraries across the nation.

“Mexican-American history and Chicano and Chicana literature simply teaches how it has played a role in U.S. history, and to ban it is doing a disservice and an injustice to the growing population of Latinos and Latinas,” said Dr. Adrianna Santos, English adjunct at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

Controversies as to why Chicano literature are banned in schools and libraries continue to vary, but the main reasons include focus on political issues.

According to Santos, Mexican-American literature tend to have a focus on labor and immigration issues, hybrid identity, experience of living in between worlds, heritage of both Spanish and indigenous cultures, and issues of race, ethnicity, and oppression in the U.S.

These issues have brought attention to a small grass-roots organization in Houston dedicated to giving writers their voices back.

Two years ago, El Librotraficante gathered donated Chicano literature and took caravans throughout the state of Texas to provide students the opportunity to experience banned literature.

Tony Diaz, founder of El Librotraficante and English professor at Lone Star College, says Chicano literature continues to be banned because school boards repeatedly vote it out of curriculum.

“School Boards determine the curriculum and at the same time there has been a lot of cultural tension,” Diaz said.

Because books can be repeatedly voted out of school curriculum, this would mean that the process of a banning a book must follow a procedure.

Sarah Timm, a librarian at the Texas A&M University-San Antonio, said the process of voting books out of curriculum isn’t a hard process to follow through with school board administrators or library administration.

“It’s on a case-by-case basis, and the process starts by someone in the community who has an issue with the book that they find on the shelf of a public library or a parent that has found a book that they don’t agree with in their schools,” Timm said. “The concerned individual raises issues with the library or school administrator.”

The university has no reported cases of community members wishing to challenge or ban a book.

University librarians maintain an internal structure geared toward providing books that pertain to each department. Librarians follow the American Library Association code of ethics to provide students with the freedom to read books.

One of the guiding principles that is included in those of code of ethics is to “resist all efforts to censor library resources.”

To celebrate Banned Books Week, the university library co-hosts the annual Read Aloud events in collaboration with the English and Women’s Studies programs.

About the Author

Gloria Petit
Gloria Petit is managing editor for the Mesquite-News. She is majoring in communications-journalism and recently finished her minor in English. She attended Northwest Vista College, where she received an associate degree in Liberal Arts, prior to transferring to Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Gloria gained an interest for journalism while serving with her high school news broadcast at Southwest High School. Most recently, she served as an editor for the student news organization at Palo Alto College. Gloria hopes to return to graduate school to pursue a master’s degree. Email: GloriaB.Petit@jaguar.tamu.edu

Join the Conversation

© 2024 Jaguar Student Media | Texas A&M University-San Antonio. All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved.
San Antonio Website Design & Development - Backyard Studios
Join Our Newsletter

Get the Mesquite News delivered straight to you.