When Arizona Know Nothings ideologically dismantled a proven Mexican-American Studies program in Tucson Unified, Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez fought the good fight. The associate professor at the University of Arizona was among fifteen faculty members and students who were arrested protesting HB 2211 which effectively banned ethnic studies in January 2012. Rodriguez's authored texts were among those blacklisted.
Despite a federal judge upholding most of the ban earlier this year as constitutional, the activist scholar is still fighting the good fight in Arizona and elsewhere.
Case in point: He'll be the keynote speaker at this Saturday's Raza Studies Now Conference in Santa Monica, which is drafting El Plan de Los Angeles–a call for ethnic studies programs in high schools throughout Southern California to close the achievement gap. After that, Dr. Rodriguez heads to SanTana for an evening presentation at Libreria Martinez de Chapman University!
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At the University of Arizona, Profe Rodriguez teaches courses on, among other things, the history of maíz and has a forthcoming book Nin Tonantzin Non Centeotl: Our Sacred Maíz is Our Mother slated to come out next spring. He'll be talking about that and much more at this weekend's presentation.
In the meantime, Rodriguez blogs at Dr. Cintli and contributes to the online news and analysis website Truthout where his last piece Smiling Brown: People the Color of the Earth was published on Tuesday.
Read up and GO, GO, GO! See you there!
Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez appears at Libreria Martinez de Chapman, 216 N Broadway, Santa Ana. Sat. 6-8 p.m. Reception seating is limited. RSVP required by calling 714-973-7900 or emailing li**************@ch******.edu
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!