NY Times article about MAS, Matt de la Peña

by David Safier

Last week I wrote about author Matt de la Peña's visit to TUSD and his appearance at a Save Ethnic Studies fundraiser. I promised a story about de la Peña's visit in today's NY Times. Right on schedule, here's the NY Times article, Racial Lens Used to Cull Curriculum in Arizona.

Quite a bit of the article is about the history of the demolition of the MAS program, told reasonably accurately. The parts about de la Peña, author of "Mexican WhiteBoy" and other novels appealing mainly to adolescents, and his visit to TUSD are new.

For instance, in what I believe is a TUSD first, the person who got de la Peña to the district was a student, Ana Verdugo, who was so moved by his book, she helped raise his $1,000 speaking fee. Instead of keeping the money, the author used it to buy 240 copies of his novel, which he handed out to students.

As de la Peña told us at the fundraiser, at first he was elated at having his book banned, which is a badge of honor for authors. But then he realized he was one of those reluctant readers who imagined he would graduate high school and that would be the end of his formal education. He asked himself, what if some student who doesn't get the opportunity to read his and other books banned from classroom use by the district is denied the intellectual spark that would move them to greater educational attainment? That's when he decided to turn his fee into books for students.

Here's the most amusing anecdote in the article, about de la Peña's basketball prowess.

[De la Peña] got to college because he could play basketball. His hope was to play professionally until, in one of his college games, he guarded Steve Nash. (Nash: 36 points, 4 assists; de la Peña: 3 points, 1 assist, 8 turnovers.)

We may have Steve Nash to thank for de la Peña's contribution to literature.

BOOK GEEK NOTE: In anticipation of meeting de la Peña at the fundraiser (he's a hell of a nice guy, by the way), I read "Mexican WhiteBoy." I can recommend it without reservation to adult readers as well as adolescents. Though it's geared to youth, it's a complex book which gives a multi-faceted view of the San Diego area barrio where it's set and the people who live there. That's not my world, and I think I understand it a little better thanks to the novel.