Book Bomb and Cultural Event

On Saturday, June 9th, between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m., Occupy Tucson and Peace on Earth Starts in America (POESIA) co-sponsored a book bomb and cultural event at the John A. Valenzuela Youth Center in South Tucson with about 200 people in attendance. Nearly 200 books were distributed free to students and other participants. These were donated by Occupy Wall Street’s Peoples’ Library, which sent them to Occupy Tucson in solidarity with the Mexican American Studies Program here.

Many of these books were titles recently banned from Tucson public schools by the Tucson Unified School District for the now discontinued Mexican-American Studies Program. They included titles like Farenheit 451 by the recently deceased science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and numerous titles related to Chicano and Mexican history, culture, and literature in both English and Spanish languages.

The event included lively presentations of folk dances by Danza Azteca a Tonantzin, music by the mariachi group Tapatio, poetry readings and rappers from Tucson Youth Poetry Slam. These presentations were provided free of charge by those groups in support of the event and the Mexican American Studies Program.

Additional support came from Las Promontoras, a Derechos Humanos project, which served tasty Mexican-American dishes to all attendees, and the student group United Individuals in Demand of Their Studies (UNIDOS), which contributed organizational and preparatory assistance, all as volunteer service.