Librotraficante Traffics Through ABQ

We just put on a successful benefit for Librotraficante March 4 at the Ouptost, and we welcomed the Librotraficantes to the National Hispanic Cultural Center March 15 to a packed house that raised thousands of dollars for books to be donated to Tucson students. Librotraficante traveled throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona on their way to deliver banned books to students in the Tucson Unified School District, which confiscated classics from its Mexican American Studies list as part of the recent efforts in Arizona to eliminate ethnic studies. At the Albuquerque event, one poet said, “Jan Brewer is going to wake up with a headache tomorrow.” Readers at the NHCC event included Librotraficantes from San Antonio and Albuquerque writers Richard Vargas, Margaret Randall, Mary Oishi, Andrea Serrano, Hakim Bellamy, and Cathy Arellano. This effort to smuggle “wet books” back into Arizona shows how art saves lives and how creative people can change the world. We hope to continue to explore the Librotraficante movement at the conference, which meets September 28-30. Viva activism!