“WHY A FREE PRESS IS ESSENTIAL TO DEMOCRACY Hosted by Justice Alliance: Indivisible Southern Arizona MONDAY, OCTOBER 1 AT 6:00PM | FREE ADMISSION DOORS WILL OPEN AT 5:30, AND PROFESSOR BAMBAUER’S PRESENTATION WILL BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 6PM. Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Tucson UA Professor Jane Bambauer will open the event with a presentation … Read more
The YWCA of Southern Arizona’s Stand Together Arizona & Training Advocacy (STAT) Center conducted a statewide survey and held 14 town halls from Nogales to Kingman (including Bisbee, Tucson, Casa Grande, Tempe, Glendale, Globe, Show Low, Wickenburg, Prescott, Yuma, Lake Havasu City, Flagstaff), in the Fall of 2017. Here’s their initial report, which was released … Read more
City High School is at 47 E. Pennington, between Stone Ave. and Scott Ave. Hosted by Election 2016: Now What? “Worried, upset or heartsick about what is happening to our country? Feel a need to ‘Do Something’ about it? Come to the Cooperation Unconference to find a supportive community of creative, effective people who want … Read more
Sexism and sexual violence cross all ethnic, racial, and class boundaries. This story focuses on the struggle against misogyny and sexual violence in Tucson’s Chicano community.
For years, the Tucson Weekly’s Mari Herreras has covered multiple aspects of the rise and fall of Mexican American Studies (MAS)– the chaining, the chanting, the demonstrations, the fundraising, the controversies, the personalities– but A Broken Community, the cover story of the July 18 issue, was one of the more fascinating stories about the evolution of MAS.
Maybe it’s because I gave up reading the Three Sonorans blog years ago, but I haven’t heard or read much about MAS since the former director of the program, Sean Arce, was charged with domestic violence back in December 2012.
At the time, the silence surrounding the Arce’s charges and what happened between him and his wife that night in December at La Cocina was deafening. As I wrote, “Bloggers who regularly post ‘news’ stories every time Arce catches a cold are mute, and none of the mainstream media have touched his story.”
A handful women bloggers wrote about the Arce story– most notably, a relatively new blog, MalintZINE. “Dear Sean”, a moving essay about machismo and sexism in the MAS movement, was one of the first few posts on this blog, and at the time, the author(s) was/were anonymous to the general public, myself included.
Herreras’ TW story updates us on this thread.
Rape and Violence
Without naming many names, Herreras gives us the back story on sexism, sexual abuse charges, and fallen idols in the MAS program, with accounts dating back to 2011 (more than a year before the December 2012 Arce incident). At the core of the story is former MAS spokesperson and former cover girl for the Precious Knowledgemovie Leilani Clark and the womyn of MalintZINE. In the early heyday of the MAS protests, Clark was everywhere. I heard her speak with poise and fire about the MAS struggle at multiple events, and then… poof… she disappeared from the scene. She was everywhere, and then, nowhere. (I’m sure I’m not the only one who wondered what happened to her.)
To find out, follow the jump.