La Prensa San Diego

Commentary: By Maribel Hastings As frenzied political junkies begin to chatter about the fight for the Latino vote in November, another fight is brewing in Washington this spring. Last week, the highest court in the land heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB 1070. The Court has the potential to officially [...]

Democratic Party’s Abandonment of the Core Commentary: By Rodolfo F. Acuña The fitness exercise pilates, from my limited understanding of the exercise method, works on the principle of developing “a strong core or center (tones abdominals while strengthening the back), and improving coordination and balance.” The principle fascinates me because it can be applied to [...]

Commentary: By Rodolfo F. Acuña Aside from the injustices in Arizona, i.e., the scraping of a highly successful education program, the evident war against Mexicans, and the nullification of the U.S Constitution, I was seduced to the struggle by David A. Morales’ “Three Sonoran” blogs in the Tucson Citizen. His crusade against the white business [...]

In Arizona, a state notorious for how their officials treat undocumented immigrants, set a precedent that shocked those who thought they were above the law and shocked those that thought justice didn’t exist in the state. Three lawyers who were considered by many as the legal hit mob of Sheriff Joe Arpaio weredisciplined by a [...]

Commentary: By Raoul Lowery Contreras Not since the armies of the United States and Mexico chased Apache hero Geronimo all over Arizona and Northern Mexico has the United States paid much attention to Arizona until a car bomb killed a reporter who was investigating deep corruption of Arizona Republican politicians who were bought and paid [...]

By Jeff Biggers AlterNet With the impeccable timing that continues to cement Tucson’s reputation as a hotbed of censorship and intellectual freedom violations, the online Tucson Citizen news site just announced that it has pulled the plug on the city’s most popular Latino blogger and activist, The Three Sonorans. Despite drawing over 1.6 million visits [...]

Editorial: Last week we published a commentary by Sylvia Puente entitled “Immigration Isn’t Everything: The Latino Vote Will Not Be Blindly Cast.” This has been our sentiment over the many years. This point was further highlighted this week, when we sat down with a delegation from Africa which was in San Diego to learn more [...]

By Valeria Fernández New America Media PHOENIX — Tony Diaz, aka “El Librotraficante” (or book smuggler) is arriving in Tucson on Friday with a truckload of Mexican-American books that were effectively banned from the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) to distribute to a network of “underground libraries.” The caravan, which started in Houston on March [...]

Perspective: By Ernie McCray I was sitting at a table at the Barrio Station, in San Diego’s Barrio Logan, next to a Chicana friend of mine, having a good time sipping the tastiest of whiskey sours while she nursed a smooth white wine. In the background the music that was being sung and played was [...]

Guest Editorial: By Rob Sobhani News that the Supreme Court will review Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigration should be welcome because it will settle the question of whether state law can supersede immigration powers belonging to the federal government. The controversial law, S.B. 1070, gives police unprecedented power to detain and check the documents of [...]

Commentary: By Ernie McCray Oh, Governor Brewer, I look at a photo of you flashing such a sunny smile and I can’t help but think of a song Maya Angelou sings: When it looked like the sun wouldn’t shine anymore, God Put a rainbow in the clouds. With that smile of yours you could surely [...]

Commentary: By Rodolfo F. Acuña For the past six years or so I have heard constant threats from Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne (Canada) and Superintendent of Schools John Huppenthal (Indiana) that they were going to ban, destroy and wipe out Mexican American Studies, as well as Occupied America. Now after disregarding a $177,000 report [...]

U.S. Department of Education officials are considering a request by the 21 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to investigate allegations of civil-rights violations by Arizona’s enforcement of a new law barring racially divisive classes. U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat who is a caucus member, said he had spoken Friday with the caucus [...]

 Commentary: By Rodolfo F. Acuña Teresa Wiltz in America’s Wire writes that despite claims of increased educational opportunities for minorities that the performance of black and Latino teenagers remains the same or lower than 30 years ago. In fact, the math and reading performance of black and Latino high school seniors equal that of 13-year-old [...]

By Ernie McCray Saving Ethnic Studies is my latest enterprise because my home state, Arizona, just can’t shed itself of Jim Crow kind of thinking, going back to long before I was born and all through my growing up in Tucson in the 40’s and 50’s. Then the 60’s came along and the state had [...]

  Commentary: By Andrew Kordik For readers of history, it was not shocking when the Arizona Department of Education decided to close Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies program. In a debate on the popular news program Democracy Now!, Superintendent John Huppenthal defended his position, saying, “I want to make sure these students aren’t being indoctrinated . . [...]

Commentary: By Rodolfo F. Acuña What is missing in the media’s coverage of the elimination of the Tucson Unified School District Mexican American Studies program is that students were learning and they wanted to go to school. I take this shutdown personal. One of the reasons I have stayed in education for over fifty-five years [...]