I was informed that on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day the book "Rethinking Columbus," designed to make pupils and teachers think about how this county was founded and developed by its many peoples, was banned from the classrooms of Tucson, Arizona. The book, which has been in print for twenty years and has sold 300,000 copies, carries essays donated by noted Native American, Mexican American, African American, Hispanic American and white authors and educators. This includes two essays of mine entitled "Black Indians and Resistance” from BLACK INDIANS: A HIDDEN HERITAGE.read more

I spent seven weeks in Zuccotti Park, and here is what I got.read more

I took it as a great honor to discover that my book Savage Inequalities has been banned from classrooms in Tucson, Arizona -- especially along with James Baldwin, César Chavez, Sandra Cisneros, and my old and beloved friends Luis Rodriguez, Paulo Freire, David Berliner, Howard Zinn, Bill Bigelow, and Bob Peterson at Rethinking Schools.read more

Each of us has our mentors, the individuals who showed us at an early age not only a different way of seeing the world, but a different way of being in the world. I found my mentor at the Teton Science School in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His name was Ted Major. He was the first Democrat I had ever met. I was eighteen years old.

Today, Ted is ninety-one years old, and still as contemporary as anyone I know. He tends his fruit trees in Victor, Idaho, with his wife, Joan, of more than sixty years, and four generations of Majors living on their homestead. I am still learning from him.read more

"Instead of seeing Hispanics as outsiders who do not belong here, we need to start seeing them as ancestors of the original inhabitants of these lands. They are the living fulfillment of the Ghost Dance prophecy." - Chief Billy Redwing Tayac, Piscataway Nationread more

How does it feel to have one of your books banned in Arizona? In part, it feels good. It proves that we have said something that the authorities found dangerous. And they could not have found it dangerous if they had thought that it was untrue--in that case they would merely have ignored or refuted it. Instead, they fabricated patently false reasons for boxing up our book, along with six others, and sending it to a distant book depository.read more

Recently, I had the distinction of becoming one of a select list of authors banned by the Tucson United School District. Now this is no small feat.read more

Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world.read more

It's happened before.

When Europeans invaded the Americas, they took our books away and claimed they were civilizing us.

They wanted to take our right to determine our fates away.

They wanted to inflict their point of view and their version of reality on us.

They wanted to marginalize us as indigenous people who needed their guidance.read more

The recent spate of book bannings in the Tucson, Arizona should be a wake up call for all who care about multicultural education and academic freedom in our schools.read more

Imagine our surprise.read more

“This is a mini-McCarthyish blacklist equating any Latin@ immigrant-related expression to the fear generated amongst the populace during the Cold War. This is not the only move to discredit Latin@ literature along the border, in particular Texas. The question during an election year to ask, especially for Arizonan voters, is: Yay or nay on our First Amendment and Freedom of Speech rights being systematically removed?

--Ana Castillo is the author of “Loverboys” and “So Far From God,” along with many other novels and books of poetry.read more

A lawsuit alleges that the banana giant is liable for war crimes in Colombia.read more

Two years ago in Haiti, the Earth opened, buildings collapsed, and people died—300,000 to be precise. Anniversaries hurt. They brutalize the body. They pummel the spirit.read more

The struggle we are engaged in right now is of pivotal importance for this country. Whether we win or lose will determine the future of America.read more