Let’s hope Librotraficante gets as much press in Destination Tucson as it has elsewhere

 by David Safier

The Librotraficante Caravan should be pulling into Tucson some time today. A press conference is scheduled for 3pm, followed by a series of events Saturday (flier with details below the fold). Will our press give adequate coverage to this event which, after all, is a result of our school district's demolition of the MAS program and the banning of books used in its courses? We'll see.

Here's some of the press coverage in other cities in the past few days:

• Caravan brings book protest to Mesilla en route to Arizona (Las Cruces Sun-News)
• Group to Expose Arizona to Mexican-American Literature (My Fox Houston)
• Librotraficantes: Caravan moving through San Antonio on way to protest Arizona's dismantling of Mexican-American studies (San Antonio Current)
• Group Advocates Cultural Studies (Albuquerque Journal)
• 'Librotraficantes' Stop By El Paso To Protest Controversial Ariz. Education Law (KVIA El Paso [ABC])

There's been more far-reaching coverage as well, like the story in the NY Times (Books Without Borders), the story on Univision (Los Librotraficantes) and the story in Global Voices Italiano (USA: altri attacchi contro le culture degli immigrati messicani), which includes the Tony Diaz video and this paragraph:

Da questi segnali positivi si evince che l'onda di solidarietà guadagnerà sempre più forza e che sarà un valido antidoto contro l'abuso di potere, la paura e il razzismo. A marzo la carovana Librotraficante, che partirà da Houston per arrivare in Arizona, passando per il Texas, distribuirà i libri censurati.

Flier for Saturday's events below the fold.