Arizona censors.

• Author: Quintero, David
• Position: Letters to the Editor - Letter to the editor

After vanquishing the American Indians in the nineteenth century, the U.S. government aggressively began its quest to destroy all traces of the culture and history of these indigenous people by forbidding them to speak their languages or to bear Indian names ("Banned in Tucson," by Luis J. Rodriguez, April issue).

Now, two centuries later, the Tucson Unified School District is preventing its students from learning about Mexican American history or reading books written by Latino writers.

What's next?

Forbid the teaching of Spanish in its curriculum?

Compel students with Spanish names to change them?

I only hope that all Americans who value freedom will raise their voices against this outrage.

David Quintero

Monrovia, California

Rodriguez's "Banned in Tucson" article can do more for improving education and democracy than the book snatchers.

Diane Canniff

Anna Maria, Florida

I fully understand the prison censorship that Jimmy Santiago Baca described in his statement regarding the banning of the Mexican American Studies program and six of his books ("Censored Writers Respond," April issue).

I understand this because I am incarcerated in Texas, one of the...