The Santa Maria Public Library will observe the 30th annual national anniversary of Banned Books Week with a featured speaker whose book on her childhood experiences in a California migrant labor camp was among dozens ordered removed from Tucson, Ariz., classrooms.
Diana Garcia, who was born in Merced, teaches at the California State University in Monterey Bay, where she coordinates the Institute for Human Communication’s Reading, Writing, and Critical Thinking Program.
She’ll speak at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 1 in the library’s Shepard Hall. The free program is part of a current series of speakers sponsored by the Friends of the Santa Maria Public Library.
In a related program, from 2 to 5:30 p.m., also in Shepard Hall, four writers who were students or teachers in ethnic studies programs—Dorinda Moreno of Santa Maria and Yolanda Miranda, Anna Nieto Gomez, and Maria Guardado, all of Los Angeles County—will read works by authors whose books were among those removed in Tucson.
Garcia’s book of poems, When Living Was a Labor Camp, is an American Book Award winner. In addition to reading selections from her book, she’ll relate the problems in Arizona.
The Tucson Unified School District in January disbanded a Mexican American Studies program under threat of losing 10 percent of its state fund. The penalty was included in a 2010 state law that bars public schools from teaching ethnic studies programs that “promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” The American Library Association has denounced the program’s disbanding.
The ALA inaugurated Banned Book Week in 1982 to call attention to the efforts of individuals and organizations who seek to prevent others from having access to various reading materials with which they disagree.
This year’s designated week, Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, is also sponsored by organizations of booksellers, publishers, journalists, authors, and college stores.
For more information, call 925-0994.
Arts Briefs is compiled by Arts Editor Shelly Cone. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 4, 2012.